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editorial

President, French Chamber of Commerce in Great Britain, and Chairman & CEO, International SOS

T

he crisis in Japan unfolds before our eyes, each day revealing more tragedy.

European countries have reached out to the people of Japan at this moment of greatest anxiety.

The consequences of this form of disruption are unpredictable. It is safe to say that this is a wake-up call for the nuclear industry. In this issue we examine some of the European nuclear leaders’ initial responses to events in Japan. We also pose some of the key questions likely to face these technological pioneers.

Turbulence sends mixed messages to business. Companies instinctively prefer stability and predictability to the unknown, because they can plan longer term and deal with fewer variables. But such a view looks inward rather than outward, to immediate self-interest rather than to more strategic factors.

As Chamber members seek to understand events in the Middle East, unpredictable though they may be, let us consider possible outcomes and implications. All democrats should applaud the bravery of citizens who overthrew dictators, and welcome the prospect of wealth shifting from corrupt cliques to broader sectors of society.

Happily our Focus this issue is devoted to Business and Education, which provides the skills that firms need to exploit the opportunities which often arise out of crises.

We concentrate on everything from international courses and technology to business principles, ethics and culture.

Closer to home, Patron members glimpsed the remarkable transformation of St Pancras Renaissance hotel during an ‘itinerant’ dinner held onsite. Following a culinary theme, we also salute an old friend, Raymond Blanc, who generously gave over his restaurant to two dinners for Patrons, under our ‘Diner des Chefs’ programme.

In these turbulent times let’s remember the value and values of the business community, as exemplified by the Chamber Forum on Climate Change which is set to be launched on 11 April. We celebrate values of sustainability as we grapple with the challenges of change. I

info - april / may 2011 -

contents

issue 194 / April – May 2011

17

City profile: Richard Saunders

38

Higher education in Britain and France

Breaking News 10 Japan in Crisis

5 minutes with 12 Nicolas Petrovic Chief Executive Officer of Eurostar

News in the City 15 First among equals 17 Profile: Richard Saunders, speaks to INFO

News 19 20 21 22 23

Countdown Clock to London 2012 Olympics London & Partners is born St Pancras Renaissance Hotel opening soon CFBL topping-out ceremony Can East London rival California’s Silicon Valley 25 EDF and Alstom team up to meet France’s wind energy needs Capgemini wins contract at EDF Energy 26 Raymond Blanc returns on BBC Two Angela Mortimer celebrates International Women’s Day 2011 28 Hello/Goodbye 29 UK Regional review

Managing Director: Florence Gomez Editor-in-chief: Nicolas Kochan Assistant Editor: Lawrence Joffe Corporate Communications Exec : Hannah Meloul Graphic Designer: Prima Hevawitharane Advertising: David Lislet - Tel: (020) 7092 6651 Publications Assistant: Pauline Beroard Cover picture: © iStockphoto/ericsphotography Printed by: Headley Brothers Ltd Subscription: INFO is published every 2 months.

19

London Olympic’s Countdown

57

78

Renault puts graduates in the driving seat

Success Story 30 Frenger: Mastering international markets

Business Education 34 Business Education Timeline The academic sector 36 An academic system in flux 38 Higher education in Britain and France – a tale of two systems 40 An education to widen horizons MBAs for business 42 Managing High Potentials: The EMBA Challenge 44 Cross-cultural management and students abroad 46 Harnessing social media for worldwide learning 48 Back to School – or how a little relearning never hurts 50 How the MBA is worth a 21% pay rise 51 Erasmus takes abroad Europe’s educational message How to choose an MBA 52 Earning the MBA you can rely on 54 Rating the rankings 55 FT rankings

33

Sophie Marceau Questionnaire de Proust

Case Studies 56 A new partnership between employers and educators 57 Renault puts graduates in the driving seat 58 Waste not, want not! Veolia builds links to British universities 59 Delivering Britain’s critical energy skills

Culture 61 62 64 65

Joan Miro’s work comes to London What’s on A very British Film Awards Season Book reviews

Wine Press News

@ the Chamber...

66 68

70 Lombard offers expats tax recipe 71 Alstom’s role in powering up Britain 72 A glimpse of history at refurbished St Pancras Renaissance Hotel 74 Forthcoming events 76 Forthcoming Forums & Clubs

Questionnaire de Proust 78 with Sophie Marceau

Editorial Committee: Patrick Gougeon, Valery Kisilevsky, Katherine Lakeland, Philippe Lane & Florence Mele.

Distribution: CCFGB members, Franco-British decision makers, Business Class lounges of Eurostar, Eurotunnel & Air France in London, Paris and Manchester.

Contributors: Philippe Chalon, Patrick Gougeon, Lord Robin Janvrin, Valery Kisilevsky, Prof. Philippe Lane, Thibault Lavergne, London Business School, Florence Mele, Julie Mercer, Dr Robert Owen, Jean-Philippe Verdier & Siân Vernon.

Editorial and Publishing Offices: French Chamber of Commerce in Great Britain Lincoln House, 300 High Holborn London WC1V 7JH Tel: (020) 7092 6600; Fax: (020) 7092 6601 www.ccfgb.co.uk

info - april / may 2011 -

Patron Members of the French Chamber of Commerce in Great Britain

G U I D E L I N E S

October 2009

- info - april / may 2011

Š Photo credits: tim Shaw, VINCI and subsidiaries photo libraries.

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breaking news

Š flickr/DigitalGlobe www.digitalglobe.com

Japan in crisis

Satellite image of the Fukushima Dai Ichi Power Plant showing damage after an Earthquake and Tsunami taken on March 14 2011 at 11:04 am local time • 3 minutes after an explosion

Intro to the News feature ||| Events in Japan have touched the world. They are changing all the time, and in a world of 24 hour news, there can be a sense of flux and instability. So how do we make sense of such an event, when interpretations are so numerous, data so uncertain and analysis so prone to error?

This is the context for INFO magazine to launch its News Review feature. This column will be written to respond to a highly topical event. Our interpretations will be guided by the interests of our members; they will also relate to topics immediate concern.

T

here can be no more appropriate topic than the Japanese crisis. The aspect of the catastrophe where we (as Chamber members) connect most closely relates to the reputation of nuclear power.

10 - info - april / may 2011

This crisis has the potential to impact on many of our leading members in terms of their business prospects.

Before embarking on such a discussion, let us reiterate what was said in our Edito, that this is a

breaking news

human tragedy of enormous proportions, so great that we cannot possibly compute it. This is also a tragedy of economic magnitude, for the businesses that have been destroyed or that have been closed down as a temporary measure and for the wider economy that has to bear the cost of rebuilding.

A time will come (and perhaps quickly) when the country will need to spend heavily on rebuilding its battered infrastructure. But that too will drain the Treasury and Japan will be paying a price variously put at $15 billion (the insurable cost) and $15 trillion (Goldman Sachs estimate of total cost) for many years.

Other factors are equally unquantifiable. For example, the collapse of parts of the country’s infrastructure (such as the power supply), in the wake of the Tsunami, has hit the manufacturing infrastructure, including its important chip processing and car manufacturing plants. The release of radiation into the atmosphere, the soil and the water has also triggered fears about the safety of its food chain.

Finally, the continuing sense of crisis will have major repercussions for its tourist industry. Many of these costs will only become clear as the event’s severity can be assessed.

Japan will pay this price. But so too will the insurers and the re-insurers, many of whom are in London.

That will in turn bounce back onto their private and professional customers around the world.

That of course is merely the start of the impact. Every country that has a nuclear power infrastructure will reevaluate the safety of its existing plants. Strategies will need to be rethought, options revaluated. This may be seen from the measured response of EDF Energy. The company made some salient points, rebuffing those who would have the UK’s entire nuclear power project abandoned, shortly after the Japanese event. These were: • The UK does not experience seismic activity on the scale of Japan. The energy from the UK’s largest earthquake was 130,000 times smaller than the one which hit Japan.

• All EDF Energy’s nuclear power stations are protected against the kind of seismic, storm surge and flood events that could be expected in the UK. • These measures are detailed in approved safety cases which are tested and agreed with the independent safety authority. The safety authority provides stringent, independent nuclear regulation. It sets robust standards and ensures they are met.

Yet, for all the caution, we have seen the German and Swiss governments put prospective nuclear building

plans on hold. We have seen the British government say that it is having to factor in today’s events to its nuclear planning, already delayed. This is seen (and here we guide you to Alstom CEO Stephen Burgin’s speech on UK energy supply given to the Chamber’s CEO breakfast recently covered on page 71) to be the panacea for a gap in energy provision after 2018, when coal powered plants start to wind down.

It is absolutely clear that the UK cannot afford to discontinue its nuclear power building. It can equally not afford to expose its people to a nuclear threat. Mr Vincent de Rivaz, Chief Executive of EDF Energy UK, said recently on British Television, ‘we are conscious that this event will have impact in the future and our plans, to be clear, are undimmed because UK needs nuclear. And the question for me is not to make a pause.

The question for me is how we are going to take the lessons in our plans... ...What I can say is our plans have to go ahead because you know we have been through years and years of debate in this country reaching this consensus about the needs of nuclear, part of a diverse energy mix, and the question for us is how to go ahead without underestimating the consequences of the events. ...You know in my job, I have two words: humility and leadership. Humility is about respect for the facts and we need to understand what has happened. We need to analyse the facts and we need to draw the lessons. Humility is also the respect for different viewpoints. And I accept that there will be different viewpoints, but leadership is about deserving the trust of the public. It is my job to deserve the trust of the public and at the end of the day to make sure that what this country needs will happen.’

The following period will be crucial for the strategy of multiple businesses. The Japanese nuclear industry, for example, will review the safety features of aging power plants. While industry spokesmen insist age was not a factor in the disastrous response of the cooling systems to the onset of the Tsunami, it would be surprising if this crisis did not prompt a complete reappraisal of the Japanese nuclear fleet. Every company in the sector will be carrying out its own appraisals, some under pressure from local governments and international bodies.

It can take a crisis to puncture complacency. The nuclear sector is on notice to ensure that its own house is in order. More than that, it must also persuade the wider population that it is to be trusted. Whatever the facts, global suspicion long-lurking beneath the surface, has been aroused. The nuclear sector have a challenge on their hands, which we are confident they can meet successfully. I N.K

info - april / may 2011 - 11

5 minutes with...

Nicolas Petro vic , CEO, Eurostar Nicolas Petrovic has overseen some key changes at Eurostar. But the company is now entering a crucial period of enhanced competition and external pressures, as he told INFO magazine.

INFO: How do you view and prepare for the expected arrival of competition?

The whole European market for international railway journeys and passengers is being deregulated. This is a very important step for the industry. Obviously we had been preparing for it for a while. We assumed, and now we know, that we would have competitors.

However, this competition also creates opportunities for us throughout the whole European market.

What are you doing about it?

The first step in preparing for competition was to make the business stronger, and lighter on its feet, more commercial. We started to integrate the three international parts of Eurostar, which were working in a loose co-operation in the past - SCNF in France, the Belgian railways SNCB, and Eurostar UK. On 3 September last year we merged the three parts of the business into one company, called Eurostar International, and we are the first European international train-operating company. So it is technical, because our customers don’t see it really; but it is a revolution for the industry.

What is your view of deregulation?

We think it is good! A bit like the deregulation of the telecoms market, it creates some competition, a bit of noise, and generally that grows the whole market. When people are more worried, there is more innovation and we really welcome that. We are not going to wait for Deutsche Bahn to arrive, we are changing now. We have a whole plan to innovate services and products for our customers – in order to we increase their loyalty.

Can you give us some examples?

We want to grow beyond our current market, which

12 - info - april / may 2011

is essentially London-Paris, London-Brussels, and we have very high market shares. Outside London we have good partnership agreements with other train operating companies in the UK. We want to develop similar deals on the Continent, to take people all the way to Germany and Holland with our partners Thales via connections in Brussels. In Germany it is Cologne, Frankfurt and all the networks there. And in France, connecting form Lille or Paris, you can go to Provence via the high speed trains (TGV); or travel to the east. We know there is an appetite from the customers for that, if we have the right product.

So is it a question of building out your product range, to give you a competitive edge?

We have a strong brand and people appreciate our service. It can always be better, but we know that there is a market there for us. At the same time there is a change of culture towards broader non-rail competition and developing on other markets, all at the same time.

It marks a big cultural transformation for Eurostar.

We were the first to go under the sea, the first to go high speed all the way – including in the UK. Now we want to be the first to develop the European market.

Do you feel that your brand is strong enough? Being the first gives you an obvious advantage – but how well established is your brand?

We are going to work on our brand and really strengthen it. Later this year we will announce ways in which we intend to improve the customer experience, the products and services, and our position generally.

The brand has to have high levels of awareness, it must be “liked” – we want it to be much stronger, to help us compete and grow.

5 m i n u t es with Nicolas Petrovic

to be. We changed our product once again, with our new intermediate ‘Standard Premier’ class, which happily enough is working very well. That was in September.

It was really an answer to the new business patterns.

Business premier itself is doing well. And the leisure market is still firm.

So we are reasonably confident, even though 2011 is a difficult year to forecast, because of pressures on spending.

All countries will experience “fiscal consolidation”, as they call it. It will all depend on how people will react to it and how they will be affected.

Simultaneously, we are preparing for the next big event, the Olympics.

Is that a terrific opportunity?

Nicolas Petrovic • CEO of Eurostar

How has the recession had an impact on travel, in terms of price, passengers, occupancy, profits, and how many trains you run?

There have been unexpected effects in some ways! First of all, even during the worst of the recession our revenue kept growing, at a slow rate, in 2009 compared to 2008.

But then we bounced back in 2010, with an annual increase of 12% in revenues compared to 2009. We never had a decrease in our revenue during this period.

But then the mix of the market changed. During the peak of the recession in 2009 especially, the business market was very affected. We rely a lot on the City of London, financial companies, and obviously they were all freezing their development. We suffered from that.

The business market was down. Many people were downgrading their tickets from business premier to standard.

On the other hand, the leisure market held up very firmly in the UK, which is our major area of business.

We did a study with the populations of our European core markets, and when people were asked how the recession had affected their travel, interestingly enough they said: It will be tough to save money – but not on our holidays! And actually that is what happened.

The leisure market stayed firm in the UK because when the pound decreased by 25%, suddenly London became an affordable destination. So we pushed on marketing very hard, and we are one of the best promoters of London as a tourism destination. As I told the British tourism minister recently, we have developed London as a short break destination for French and Belgians, and also Dutch and Germans. Those markets really increased a lot.

Since then and over the past few months the business market has picked up though it is not as strong as it used

Oh yes. We are partners of the London 2012 Games; it is a key project for us. We are also partnering with a number of tour operators on the Continent so that people can go to the Games by train from all over Europe. That is good for CO2 emissions, it is comfortable, and you arrive literally five minutes away from the Olympic site. People get off at St Pancras, hop onto a South Eastern train to Stratford and can be at the Games in seven minutes!

We want to make the Olympics big on the Continent and bring in visitors. This links with our strategy of getting people to switch to the train, not only from Paris and Brussels, but also from further away. It is at the heart of our strategy. It is really a great opportunity.

What are the hazards of running a multi-cultural company?

When I first arrived at Eurostar I got a great piece of advice. I was told: “You are French so be careful in the UK. It is not like in France. If you do a brainstorming session, the following day everything will be put in place! In France you generate ideas and then you have another idea to decide which idea you will work on.

There is a lot more “processing”!” It was a bit of a joke, but there was some truth to it.

Thinking ahead to the arrival of on-rail competition, will you look to any changes in fares?

We have always priced our services to remain competitive within our markets and will continue to do so.

Since we launched our services in 1996, we have been competing with the airline industry and will do the same with the arrival of on-rail competitors. Price will always be important. But of equal importance is the need to offer a safe, reliable and punctual service as well as a compelling offer to our customers. These are areas in which we are absolutely focussed. I Interview by Nicolas Kochan

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news in the city

by Nicolas Kochan

First among Equals The City’s pre-eminence as a global centre for capital flows is under threat. But London will not disappear. Like the British economy, it will have to adapt to a decline in status.

W

what the country loses in revenues, it gains in socalled ‘invisibles’. These are the fees and commissions provided by bankers, local and foreign, that boost the British balance of trade.

The loss of support to the City from its local politicians poses undoubtedly the biggest threat.

Here we come to the recent economic crisis that many blame on City bankers. Whether this is fair or unfair, politicians with their democratic mandate, must reflect the disillusionment and anger felt among the local population. The City’s ability to rely on the British government is undoubtedly in jeopardy. The risk of a falling out between government and the City has never been more pronounced, posing a real threat to the City’s unspoken privileges. Allied to this crisis, is a loss of confidence, some might say competence among local regulators, providing instability in a sector so dependent on a firm and ethical back-up.

But what now of the opportunity? While the City currently looks weaker than it has for a long time, no other financial centre looks remotely like taking its place. Not New York. Not Frankfurt or Paris.

Not Shanghai or Bombay. So the City has a breathing space to take stock of its position.

As the global marketplace becomes more culturally diverse, its financial centre will need to be less culturally specific than it has been in the past. That will assure London a role, but perhaps that will be more akin to ‘first among equals’, rather than merely first! The other members of the top bracket have yet to reveal themselves. I y illiar arkh r/m lick ©f

here does the City of London’s reputation stand after the economic crisis? How badly dented has it been? What are its strengths? What are the threats it faces? One can imagine the City authorities posing these questions to a management consultancy to develop a long term marketing strategy.

Let us start with the City’s undoubted strengths.

The first is that the City has a very strong intellectual and human resource, that backs up the financial community in the form of legal, auditing, consulting and banking personnel. These have no parallel in such numbers across the globe. There are blue-chip law firms in New York, technically excellent bankers in Paris, superb consultants in Tokyo… but the diversity is present in London. London has the advantage of a time zone and ‘global outlook’ that has ensured it is the destination of choice for those seeking a safe home for capital, whatever its source.

The City also has an impressive physical infrastructure. Whether one is talking about the grand old City of London, the so-called Square Mile, or Canary Wharf, the excellence and aesthetic of infrastructure is not in doubt. So London’s strengths are formidable.

Let us now turn to the threats.

First and foremost is the growing loss of confidence and support the City is receiving from the British government. The City’s growth and position has relied on a largely tacit but profound underpinning provided by the local political administration.

This has ensured tax regimes have favoured its growth, on the basis that

info - april / may 2011 - 15

news in the cit y

© wikipedia/Dirk Valentine

You have seen the future ||| London, and The Financial Times in particular, is often the most objective and informed place to find economic analysis. So it was on 2 February when their leading economist Martin Wolf argued that the crisis had not spelt the end of capitalism, but it had forced us to jump into an unavoidable future of declining leverage, tighter banking regulation and a diminishing reputation for competence, vis a vis our Asian competitors. More than that, the West’s declining capacity to control the financial sector is putting a burden on China to come up with some of its own ideas for managing the financial universe. Policy makers in the West cannot wait, I am sure! I

A business staple • The Financial Times

Know your host

Small exporters encouraged

||| Where will our British politicians go for their holidays, now that President Mubarak has left office? News has surfaced that former British Prime Minister Tony Blair was a regular visitor to the Mubarak ménage in Egypt. Now we hear that some French politicians have enjoyed the same amenities with other Middles Eastern politicians as well as Mubarak. Everyone, it seems, may need to be just a little more careful whose company they keep when they look around for their summer sun! I

||| Small and medium-sized British exporters received a welcome boost when the government announced it was expanding their credit guarantee facilities. The move will involve the expansion of products available to the Export Credits Guarantee Department (ECGD).

The ECGD currently guarantees £2.2 billion worth of exports, but 95% are large deals. Now the agency will have the clout and products to underwrite deals as small as £100,000. I

Xavier Rolet’s visionary move he month Figure of t

£56.8bn

> This is the amount of tax paid by the UK’s 100 biggest companies last year. It includes all taxes the companies handed over to the state, mostly made up of corporation tax, VAT, National Insurance, business rates and income tax paid on behalf of employees. I

16 - info - april / may 2011

||| Xavier Rolet, the chief executive of the London Stock Exchange, (INFO profiled him in our October/ November 2009 issue) has proved a dynamo in the job. After years of inaction on the mergers front, the LSE has taken the lead in proposing a £5.5 billion tie-up with the Toronto Stock Exchange (TMX), putting it up among the biggest exchanges in the world. It would be the largest marketplace for commodities and metals. This was a surprise move, Visionary • Xavier Rolet but appears to have triggered further sector consolidation with the Deutsche Börse moving to marry up with the New York Stock Exchange. In 2009 Mr Rolet told us, ‘we are consciously seeking to eliminate any imbalances within our own structure. Our goal is to promote efficiency, be able to offer services as cheaply as possible and essentially be neutral.’ We wait to see how this goodwill survives the new era in global exchange consolidation. I

news in the cit y

profile

London’s fund of knowledge The UK investment management industry is one of the largest in the world, managing between £3 trillion and £4 trillion of assets, for a mix of retail funds, pension fund managers and insurance companies. The head of the industry’s representative body, the Investment Managers Association, is Richard Saunders. He speaks to INFO.

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hen banking struggles, fund management strengthens. This paradox has been proved once again in the wake of the last crisis. Money flowed out of banks as they were rocked, into fund managers, for safety and better-than-average returns. So over the last two years, no less than £50 billion has been moved into funds by savers, looking for a greater yield. It indicates a population shaken by insecurity and fear. They went initially into corporate bonds which were paying a high coupon (a yield), and then into emerging market funds, and these have boomed. Richard Saunders is fluent with the industry and says that ‘the retail investor is Richard Saunders pretty canny. He reads the markets right.’ British investors have taken increasing exposures to commodities as prices have tightened.

Mr Saunders has an interesting background, having worked for 20 years in the British Treasury, close to the former Chancellor of the Exchequer Norman Lamont, before entering the financial world. Today, he is a leading spokesman for the industry.

He notes an interesting contrast in the behaviour of French and British investors. Whereas the British (and indeed Americans) prefer to invest in equities, which carry higher levels of risk, the French look to money market and currency instruments for their exposures.

Fund managers behave differently on the two sides of the Channel, with the British taking a cautious approach to derivatives (at least for retail products) whereas the French ‘are more adventurous’. He says that derivatives are more easily applied to the money market type fund

than the equity instrument.

Bankers failed the ‘caution test’ presented by the crisis and Mr Saunders has nothing but scorn for them. The City of London’s reputation has been very badly damaged. There has been an enormous cost to the City.

People focus on what the taxpayers paid for the banks. But at the low point of the recession, the UK had lost 6 percent of output. That represented a greater cost to the whole economy.

The causes are many and complex, but the behaviour of some people in the City and in the financial community globally was a major contributor.

‘We used to scratch our heads a bit, when we heard commentators and analysts say that the beauty of the derivatives market was that it had so ironed out the risk to the point where it is spread so thinly across the financial system, that it didn’t matter any more.

We thought that this was clearly nonsense. That risk is sitting somewhere. I assumed that the investment banks, being smart, would have offloaded the risk onto someone else. But it turned out they had simply unloaded it onto each other.’

Mr Saunders warns European fund managers that it may be too soon to say that the European sovereign debt crisis triggered last year by Greece and Ireland, has ended. ‘Quite a big chunk of the risk from the crisis has ended up in Continental Europe. The Euro sovereign debt crisis has showed that it is definitely premature to say that the crisis is done and dusted. There may still be aftershocks. The debt crisis was a salutary reminder of the ongoing risk.’ I N.K

info - april / may 2011 - 17

news in the cit y

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news Compiled by Hannah Meloul

Companies

Countdown Clock unveiled to mark 500 days until the start of the London 2012 Olympics

||| The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG) and Omega, official timekeeper for the London 2012 Games, unveiled the Countdown Clock in Trafalgar Square on 14 March – kicking off the 500-day countdown to the start of the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Four Team GB Olympic gold medallists – rowers Pete Reed and Andy Hodge and sailors Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson – revealed the Clock, which counts down to the evening of the 27 July 2012 in days, hours, minutes and seconds.

Present at the event were LOCOG Chair Seb Coe, Mayor of London Boris Johnson, OMEGA ambassador and world champion heptathlete Jessica Ennis, and President of OMEGA Stephen Urquhart.

The launch of the Countdown Clock is a key moment in the build-up to the Olympic and

Paralympic Games. It is a reminder for people across the UK, as well as international visitors to the capital, that London will soon be hosting the greatest show on earth.

The steel Clock measures 6.5 metres high, five metres long and weighs around four tonnes. Its design reflects the look of the Games, with beams inspired by London and its connection with the Prime Meridian in Greenwich, the home of time.

“The launch of the Omega Countdown Clock is an important milestone for any Olympic Games and is something of a tradition within the Olympic Movement. It will be a daily and hourly reminder to everyone who visits Trafalgar Square that the countdown to the start of London 2012 has well and truly begun and that the greatest show on earth is soon coming to our country” said Seb Coe. I

info - april / may 2011 - 19

news

London & Partners is born ||| From 1st April 2011, the remit for Think London, the official foreign direct investment agency will transfer to London & Partners, the new official promotional agency for London, attracting and delivering value to businesses, students and visitors.

The remits of ‘Think London’, ‘Visit London’ and ‘Study London’ will come together forming the new agency, delivering an integrated strategy to promote London with one single voice. London & Partners will remain a publicprivate partnership and will enable a more co-ordinated approach to presenting London internationally in the run up to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Think London’s mission to help overseas businesses set up, succeed and grow in London will continue to be a core mission within the new agency.

London office contact details from 1st April: London & Partners, 2 More London Riverside, London, SE1 2RR; T: +44 (0)20 7234 5800; www.londonandpartners.com.

Dame Judith Mayhew Jonas, the chairman of the New West End Company representing retailers and property owners in London’s West End, and former chairman of the Royal Opera House, has been appointed interim chair. She will work with Danny Lopez, currently a group director at the London Development Agency, who will act as the interim chief executive to manage the transition from the existing three agencies into one.

The Mayor of London Boris Johnson said: “This new agency will play a vital role in ensuring that we can continue to foster London’s reputation across the globe as a fantastic place to live, work, study and visit.

“I’m pleased the Government has recognised the importance of fuelling London’s economic development which will, in turn, keep the motor of the UK economy going. With the London 2012 Games around the corner, it has never been more important for us to show the world exactly what our city has to offer.” I

Flying the flag for Doublet at the Games

The Tricolore is carefully constructed at Doublet

||| Bespoke French master printers Doublet must have felt like hoisting the flag full mast in early March. For Doublet, based outside Lille, has won the contract to provide all national flags for the 2012 London Olympics.

Sébastien Delecour, MD for Doublet UK for two years now, said he was ‘very excited, happy and proud. We are entering a small club of successful Olympic bidders.’

Doublet has actually been there before – it provided flags for the 26th Olympiad in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, in 1996. It also regularly creates road signs, pendants and display panels for the Tour de France, Le Mans and the French football championship.

Clearly past experience counted in getting chosen.

Other factors, says Delecour, included ‘quality, innovation and sustainability, which put together represent good

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value’. The clincher came when the decision team visited the parent factory near Lille, northern France.

There they ‘were seduced by the atmosphere’, as was this reporter when he visited last December. Step inside a remarkable wigwam shaped construction that combines offices and factory floor, and you see paints pumping through cylinders, while expert printers, men and women, mingle easily with managers. Equally impressive is Mr Doublet’s unbridled passion for flags and his views on the world.

Since winning the contract, Doublet has collected designs for 210 national flags from the Olympic Committee. Finalising the details ‘is not always easy’, explains Delecour. ‘Often the colour for a national flag depends on the leader’s preference: for example, President Sarkozy ordered a different colour blue for the Tricolour compared to former President Chirac.’

Doublet’s craft extends to branding gala events for Chambers of Commerce. Delecour says he used Doublet pendants for his own wedding in Lille. Now he is preparing turnkey branding solutions, 3D proposals, installation and some manufacturing. Meanwhile ‘a new era is starting’, he says, as Mr Doublet’s children are taking over. ‘They want to continue the tradition yet change too, by mixing old fashioned printing with digital media, which you cannot ignore’. Lille’s secret has gone global, and Doublet has apparently scored a double gold – before the Games have even started. I

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St Pancras Renaissance Hotel - London’s restored masterpiece opening Spring 2011 ||| The eagerly anticipated St Pancras Renaissance Hotel London will officially open in London’s Kings Cross on 5th May 2011, following an extensive renovation.

The original building - The Midland Grand Hotel – was designed and built by the foremost Victorian architect Sir George Gilbert Scott. The historic building has now been lovingly and masterfully restored to become one of London’s most iconic hotels and will celebrate its Grand Opening 138 years to the day after the opening of the original hotel.

Preserving the glamour of the old station and the romance of rail travel during the 1800s, the hotel will maintain its elegance and charm by offering global travellers a gateway to London in the form of one of the city’s greatest landmarks. The opening of the hotel will also mark the completion of the regeneration of St Pancras International Station, now the home of Eurostar.

The hotel will house The Gilbert Scott Restaurant, run by one of Britain’s most celebrated chefs, Marcus Wareing and will open inside the historic hotel,

St Pancras Renaissance Hotel London

featuring an exquisite David Collins designed interior that perfectly complements the stunning Victorian Gothic architecture of the iconic building.

Many of the original areas of the hotel considered of particular historical importance have been carefully renovated including the ‘Ladies Smoking Room’, the first place in Europe where it was acceptable for women to smoke in public. The infamous sweeping forecourt provides a fitting entrance for the new hotel that will also showcase restored gold-leaf ceilings, ornate wall murals and the spectacular grand staircase.

The famous staircase, widely revered as the most majestic in England with windows measuring over 50 feet and crowned by an elaborate vaulted ceiling, has been featured in many films and music videos most notably Batman and the Spice Girl’s video for their debut single ‘Wannabe’.

The £150 million renovation of the 245-room hotel consists of the historic St Pancras Chambers that will house 38 elegant and spacious Victorian bedroom suites, and Barlow House, the newly created 120,000 square foot extension that will feature original artwork and contemporary design. The hotel will also feature a 450 capacity event hall, a private club, a barber’s shop and luxury spa, to include a swimming pool and 6 treatment rooms. I Grand staircase inside the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel

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||| Eurostar ticket sales have surged thanks to a Europewide craze over the April marriage of Prince William to Kate Middleton. Evidently the cross-Channel rail company has sold 28 percent more UK-bound tickets for the week ending on the nuptial day, 29 April. ‘Not since Charles and Diana married in 1981 have we seen such huge interest across the continent in the British royal family,’ said Lionel Benbassat, Eurostar’s chief of sales and marketing for France.

Many “fever victims” were apparently taking advantage of Eurostar’s high-speed service, which can shuttle passengers from Amsterdam or Cologne to London in four hours, or from Marseille in six. The company was taking bookings from Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands. Lionel Benbassat added ‘This fascination isn’t just limited to countries that

© wikipedia/Eurostar_3012_Waterloo

Royal wedding fever fuels Eurostar bookings

Eurostar bookings are on the up for the Royal Wedding

have a monarchy themselves. After three years of financial austerity, it looks like Europe is gearing up for a party. I

The topping-out ceremony of “Collège Français Bilingue de Londres”

© Olivier Cadic

||| It is a construction tradition to celebrate when a (new) roof is sealed. And the timing was ideal on Friday 11 February 2011 to host Maurice GourdaultMontagne in one of his last official assignments as the French Ambassador to the UK (before he left to his new post in Berlin). “This project of Collège Français Bilingue de Londres (CFBL) is the most visible success of the Plan Ecole, a think-tank on educational issues led by the Cultural Department of the Embassy. It is the first secondary school in London opened since

HE Maurice Gourdault-Montagne respecting the tradition at the topping out ceremony (pouring corn for prosperity, wine for fertility and salt for purity and hospitality)

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1915 and represents a remarkable and unique example of a partnership between the French State and the private sector to serve the interests of the French Community”. He took the opportunity to thank the three trustees of French Education Property Trust (charitable trust which owns the new school building) who were co-hosting this event : Arnaud Vaissié, JeanPierre Mustier and Richard Fairbairn. As a reminder, this trust has managed to finance £26M for this school project through a bank loan guaranteed by the French Treasury which contributed to reduce the school fees of CFBL; FEPT will lease the premises to College Bilingue in a 25 year agreement and the rent will reimburse the loan to the banks without profits.

Backed up by the French Chamber of Commerce, the current fundraising target of £3M was recently reached among 15 generous companies and new donations should enable to expand the school network across London.

Many corporate officials, politicians, school representatives, parents associations and journalists were attending the event and could assess the work in progress in its phase I: the refurbishment of the existing listed Victorian building. Until now, both budget and deadlines are met and the professional team is committed to the delivery of the school by 5 September. I

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||| Once lampooned as a fanciful pipedream, the idea of East London as a future technological mega-hub took a step closer to reality on 31 January. For on that day the giant California-based networking specialist CISCO pledged to put some $500m towards a Coalitionbacked initiative dubbed “British Innovation Gateway” (BIG). Prime Minister David Cameron immediately welcomed CISCO’s promise as a boost to his vision of “East London Tech City”.

First mooted by Cameron last November, the envisaged conurbation will stretch six miles from Stratford’s fast-growing Olympic Park to Shoreditch.

Britain already has tech clusters around Reading, Oxford and Cambridge. These created successes like Arm and Autonomy. None, though, have spawned start-ups to rival Silicon Valley’s Facebook and Google.

Meanwhile critics of “Tech City” say the plans lack infrastructural co-ordination. Still, 100 small young digital companies have recently located in east London.

© flickr/PaulyB71

Can East London rival California’s Silicon Valley?

East London • Canary Wharf

And with Facebook commending Tech City as a “focal point”, with pledges from Intel and Vodaphone to invest, and with Google’s plans to hire another 1,000 staff in Europe, Tech City might yet spark BIG news after all. I

UK leads in European mobile marketing, reveals 1000mercis ||| On Tuesday 15th of February, 1000mercis, the Interactive Advertising & Marketing Agency organised a Breakfast Presentation at the Charlotte Street Hotel aiming to communicate the results of their European mobile study and more precisely about the iPhone and Smartphone users’ behaviour.

Thanks to their email programme ‘Email Attitude’, they were able to reach over 5 million European consumers in five different countries and obtain more than 300,000 respondents overall.

Highlights of the main trends of the study: 1. In the UK, 65 percent of iPhone users are aged between 16 and 44 years old, whereas Smartphone and Classic phone users attract an older age-group.

2. 38 percent of iPhone owners are executives (executive, senior manager and company manager) alongside 23 percent of Smartphone users and only 11% of classic phone users.

3. With over 87 percent of satisfied iPhone owners in the UK, it is obvious that they are also extremely loyal and have little intention of changing their mobile phone in the next 12 months. The majority of respondents also seem content with their service provider. Owners of classic phones are

willing to change to a Smartphone in the next 6 months which means the Smartphone market is considerably growing.

4. Across Europe, mobile Internet use is high mainly in the UK, Italy and Germany. 60 percent of British respondents connect daily or nearly every day compared to 39 percent of German respondents.

5. Again, the British are the most active when it comes to iPhone app downloads, both free and paid for.

Whereas in France and Italy, 50 percent of respondents declared they had never downloaded a paid-for app.

The study also focused on the iPad. As it is still relatively new, the figures received are not interesting yet but there is no doubt they will evolve dramatically over the next year.

Thibaut Munier, Director and Co-founder of 1000mercis added “Thanks to this study, which was conceived in collaboration with Ocito, the division within the group that specialises in mobile marketing, we have a database of 300,000 individuals in Europe qualified on their handset, their uses and their attitudes towards mobile and internet use on mobile.

It is an asset of great value to advertisers who want to conduct studies or develop mobile marketing actions, such as launching iPhone applications for iPhone owners.” I

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news

BRIC by BRIC: emerging markets offer UK exporters a potential bonanza ||| Robust UK exports to BRIC countries could reverse a decade of underperformance, predicts a special report from the Ernst & Young ITEM Club – The outlook for UK exports. And the dynamo behind this trend is the weak pound.

The value of exported UK goods and services will increase by 8.5 percent a year over the next ten years, according to ITEM. Sales to BRIC countries – Brazil, Russia, India and China – could grow by 11.7 percent annually. Meanwhile sales to traditional strongholds, such as Europe and the USA, may rise by 7.8 percent and 8.6 percent a year respectively. By contrast, British exports fell by - 1.8 percent a year during 2008 - 2010.

Andrew Goodwin, senior economic advisor to the ITEM Club, says UK exporters are now targeting emerging markets after lagging behind competitors for years. Currently just 5 percent of UK exports go to the BRIC economies. Government must reduce regulatory barriers to help companies break into those countries, he adds, and ‘support competitiveness through improving skill levels’, adds Goodwin.

UK exporters could also benefit from a rising middle class in BRIC countries, where average household

income may grow by 14 percent a year to 2020. This should fuel demand for electrical goods and high-tech products – traditional mainstays of UK exporters. In Britain, though, consumers still suffer tax increases, austerity measures and depressed wages.

Exports of electrical goods shall grow by 11.6 percent until 2020, optical and high-tech goods by 10.4 percent, and service sector exports by 8.4 percent, say reports.

Goodwin foresees no dramatic shift in the type of exports; rather Britain’s existing financial services and high-tech products ‘are where we have the skills, labour and the biggest competitive advantage.’

A devalued pound, argues ITEM, allows UK exporters to compete on price with Germany and the USA, and sterling should remain low for some time to come. Yet ITEM warns that a weak currency offers exporters only a temporary advantage. Britain must rather change strategy via long term investment in productivity and research, and structural reform of the education system. Goodwin concludes, ‘The UK needs to learn lessons from Germany if it is to become a major player in export markets over the longer term.’ I

||| These days China has more billionaires than any nation apart from the USA. And with such wealth comes an appetite for luxury – a fact not lost on fine jewellery establishments like Cartier.

Unlike most competitors, however, Cartier boasts something of a head-start in penetrating the lucrative Chinese market. In fact the brand has been in Hong Kong for 40 years and has strongholds in Beijing and Shanghai. Now, says Nigel Luk, managing director for Cartier’s Far East operations, the firm plans to expand in hitherto neglected centres where it sees great untapped potential.

Already Cartier runs boutiques in such locales as Tianjin, 60 minutes drive from Beijing; Chengdu in Sichuan province; Hangzhou, a growing metropolis on the Yangtze River Delta, South of Shanghai and Shenyang in the industrial Northeast, where in 2008 they opened a second store, 358 sq metres in size and designed by Bruno Moinard.

Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, Luk announced that Cartier would soon inaugurate a new three-storey flagship store in Hong Kong, alongside its nine existing boutiques there. The brand is now

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© wikipedia/CobbleCC

Golden opportunities for jewellery in China’s regions

Cartier is making the most of the luxury opportunities in the Chinese market

about to introduce a Panther de Cartier collection crafted in jade, diamonds and jadeite. Generally, he said, Chinese preferred Cartier’s iconic items as well as gold and diamond watches. They were less keen on overt Oriental references yet seemed to like “European execution with Oriental materials”. I

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© flickr/Vattenfall

EDF and Alstom team up to meet France’s wind energy needs

Gone with the wind • EDF and Alstom team up

||| Alstom and EDF Energies Nouvelles have just signed a joint bid to tender for massive offshore wind projects in France. EDF and its partners will develop the wind farms while Alstom will exclusively supply 6 MW wind turbines, built to technological specifications that will be on the market from 2013 onwards.

Ultimately the French government hopes to install 6,000 MW in offshore wind energy capacity by 2020.

Apart from replenishing the national electricity grid and greatly reducing carbon emissions, the industrial plan could boost research into new equipment, create several plants to handle component production and assembly, and stimulate a boom in jobs.

Alstom will be the exclusive manufacturer for all these projects. Philippe Cochet, Senior Vice-President of Alstom Hydro & Wind, stated that his group now has the technology to generate electricity cost-effectively and create both jobs and exports. Commenting on EDF’s burgeoning partnership with fellow Chamber member, Alstom, Yvon André, COO for EDF Energies Nouvelles operations in France, said that it ‘illustrates our determination to participate in the emergence of new industries in France and to harness our leadership position’. EDF Energies Nouvelles is already generating some energy from C Power, a 325 MW wind farm being built off the coast of Belgium, and construction has also started on their 67MW project in Britain’s Teeside. I

Capgemini wins contract to manage IT support services at EDF Energy ||| Capgemini UK plc, part of the Capgemini Group has won the bid to supply leading UK energy company EDF Energy with a spectrum of IT support services under a new outsourcing agreement. The contract is for an initial three years with options for a further two years. The value of this partnership is around £100 million (approximately €120 million) over the period to end-2015.

Under the new contract Capgemini will provide service desk, procurement and managed desktop services, including support for email, instant messaging and file sharing, to 15,000 EDF Energy IT users, with some services being provided by specialist subcontractors working with Capgemini as prime contractor. A key

focus of the new contract is to provide consistent and standardised high-quality services for all users across all business units in the United Kingdom.

EDF Energy says that Capgemini was successful because of its convincing and innovative proposals to reduce the operating costs of desktop support while delivering an updated service with strong user focus and in line with the energy company’s own continuous improvement plan. Other important factors were Capgemini’s expertise in data security, its commitment to EDF Energy’s sustainable IT programme and its proposals to reduce power consumption while maintaining and enhancing service levels. I

BNP Paribas Lease Group becomes BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions ||| To better express the evolution of its business offering towards more services and solutions that create value, BNP Paribas Lease Group changed its brand name and became BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions at the end of 2010. This change reflects the extension of the group’s business model to new activities: far more than being a pure financial partner, BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions also acts as a

service integrator, supporting its clients beyond the financing process.

BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions is the BNP Paribas subsidiary specialised in leasing and rental solutions for professional equipment and in real estate assets, offered either directly to businesses and professionals or through its partners – manufacturers, publishers and their distribution channels. I

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news

Raymond Blanc returns with second series of Kitchen Secrets on BBC Two

Raymond Blanc in action

||| In the second series of the popular Kitchen Secrets, celebrated self-taught Michelin starred chef, Raymond Blanc, returns to BBC Two with Raymond Blanc – Kitchen Secrets.

Airing over eight weeks, Blanc will demystify more secrets from the world of haute cuisine, revealing those

clever techniques needed to create show-stopping food and using his enthusiasm and general passion for cooking to encourage viewers to cast off their cooking inhibitions.

‘This series is about using some of the techniques I use in my professional life to make simple food the best it can be. Most of these dishes are the kind of cooking I do when I’m at home. Food is so much more than just cooking and eating – it is life!’ said Raymond.

During each programme he selects the best produce and focuses on a different ingredient, from lamb and shellfish to cakes and pastries. Blanc demonstrates a variety of dishes each week incorporating this ingredient, from a quick meal to prepare after work to weekend dinner parties ending with a challenging dish for the adventurous.

One of the most important elements of the show is humour – if and when things go wrong they are included in the episode. As every cook learns from making mistakes, we learn from his. I

The loyalty of Raymond Blanc to the Chamber is greatly appreciated. His growing status is cheered by the Chamber and he does not fail to reciprocate the warmth of the relationship, as he did once again at Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons where the Chamber’s Luxury Club held the second edition of its “Dîner des Chefs” on 7 March.

Such was members’ enthusiasm for the event that it was sold out and Raymond Blanc agreed to have a ‘repeat’ on 28 March. Raymond Blanc is also a Corporate member of the Chamber and we thank him for his support.

Angela Mortimer celebrates International Women’s day 2011 ||| International Women’s Day was an opportunity for both celebration and stocktaking, when Angela Mortimer invited 150 business women to a special reception at the Marriott Hotel in Mayfair on 10 March.

Angela, the founder and Director of one of Europe’s most successful recruitment consultancies, introduced a host of special guest speakers who highlighted some of the wonderful accomplishments made by women internationally.

They also gave an overview of what it is to be a hard-working woman and reconcile the demands of family life and business success. Stacey Winters, who leads Deloitte’s Customs & Global Trade Business, for instance, recalled that Margaret Thatcher had once said of Ronald Reagan: “He is more scared of me that I am of him”. Yet perception is not always the same as reality, she continued, and women need to speak up and assert their presence in the company boardroom. Women should analyse their personal core brand values and use them as strength to match the company’s values.

Marigay McKee, Fashion and Beauty Director of

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Harrods, noted that women’s emotional tendencies might be considered a weakness, though their patience and ability to reach consensus are definitely strengths.

For her part Carol Palmer, co-founder of Curzon Partnership, traced the path of her career – as did her two partners, and added that it was important to listen to one’s instincts and alter the work-life balance as one rose through a firm.

All three women have given up some of their family and leisure time to concentrate on their business life, and now admitted that at times it was important to prioritise holidays instead of opting for yet another overseas work trip, or to allocate some more time to their family instead of spending another night working late at the office.

The champagne reception and lunch was supported

by Breakthrough Breast Cancer and the money to buy the prize draw tickets were kindly donated to the association. Sponsorship funds raised by the celebration also went directly to Breakthrough Breast Cancer. So there were lessons for the heart and mind at the Mayfair Marriot, let alone the pocket! I

news

hello, goodbye...

T

he French Chamber of Commerce would like to welcome the new representatives of existing member companies. We would also like to express our gratitude to members who have made outstanding contributions to the Chamber, but who are now moving on to different destinations. We wish them all the best in their new posts.

Nathalie Seiler-Hayez appointed new General Manager of the Connaught

Nathalie SeilerHayez

||| After 1.5 years as the Hotel Manager at The Connaught in Mayfair, Guillaume Marly has relocated to the Ritz where he is now Hotel Manager. Subsequently, Nathalie Seiler-Hayez was appointed General Manager at The Connaught in October 2010, to which she brings a wealth of international experience in the luxury hotel industry. Most recently, Nathalie held the position of General Manager of the Regent Grand Hotel in Bordeaux, France.

Born in Switzerland, she is fluent in English, French and German and is a graduate of the prestigious Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne in Switzerland, from which she holds a degree in International Hospitality Management. Her previous experience includes extensive work in Paris and New York for companies such as Rosewood Hotels and Resorts, Concorde and Regent. In her role as General Manager, Nathalie will continue to build on The Connaught’s tradition and reputation for delivering highly personalised service. I

Michelin UK welcomes a new MD ||| From September 2010, the new Managing Director of Michelin in the UK is Eric Le Corre. He takes over from Jim Rickard, who has retired after 32 years with the Company. For one of his retirement gifts, he was presented with an unusual keepsake in the form of a brick. This one was special as it had been saved from the nowdemolished ‘Building 10’ administration block of Stoke factory.

Before moving to the UK, Eric Le Corre was Chief Financial Officer of Michelin North America. Prior to joining Michelin, Mr Le Corre spent four years in London with an investment management firm, returning to Paris where he held various positions in the Eric Le Corre Jim Rickard banking sector. He joined Michelin in 1999 and was appointed head of Michelin Group’s Investor Relations in March 2000. He held this position until he joined Michelin North America at the end of 2005. I

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news uk regional review

© flickr/Scottish Government

Scottish elections: All eyes on the nationalists

Rt Hon Alex Salmond MSP • Leader Scottish National Party

||| The Scottish Assembly will have an election on 5 May for all its seats. This is a particularly important election as it will see the Scottish National Party seeking a second historic term in office, after their victory in 2007. Labour, the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats and the Greens are also seeking to make gains at the polls.

Meantime, the leader of the SNP and First Minister, Alex Salmond will seek to use the election to cement his position as the most powerful Scottish politician.

The pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP) became the largest party in the Scottish Parliament at the last election in 2007 and has formed a minority government ever since with its leader Alex Salmond.

The SNP will campaign on their planned referendum on independence.

The Scottish Labour Party will hope to re-establish itself as the largest party in the Scottish Parliament. The Scottish Conservatives are looking to at least maintain the 20 seats that they already have and the Scottish Liberal Democrats will seek to minimise their losses in the wake of low opinion poll ratings following the formation of the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition at Westminster. During the campaign, the four main party leaders will engage in a series of televised debates, as they have in every general election. I

Scottish Development International builds bridges to Asia in 2011

© flickr/Dave Morris / Daveybot

||| Scottish Development International has certainly started the year with a bang. On February 9 they teamed up with United Kingdom Trade and Investment (UKTI) to run a series of market clinics called “Doing Business in Asia” at Edinburgh’s Murrayfield Stadium. Just five days later, SDI led 20 high-tech Scottish companies to Barcelona to network and showcase their products at the prestigious four-day Mobile World Conference. One retail apps firm, NN4M, predicted that contacts made there would help them expand into Europe and further afield.

‘Scotland has always punched above its weight in attracting inward investment’, commented SDI Chief Executive Anne MacColl. Now Scottish SMEs should ‘develop relationships and partnerships in Asia, and nurture an international mindset to respond to changes in the global marketplace’. In 2009 SDI generated £500m to the Scottish economy. Controlled by the Scottish government and Scottish Enterprise, the agency has secured 5,500 jobs and helped 900 Scottish companies to internationalise. SDI-backed exhibitions and trade missions could garner £220 m in sales for Scottish firms. I Murrayfield Stadium

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news

Offshore wind and tides beckon dawn of new energy era ||| Northern Irish dreams of deriving two-fifths of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020 received a major boost this March. The occasion was the Crown Estate’s launch of the province’s first Offshore Leasing Round for the development of marine renewable energy, an initiative fully backed by Chamber patron, Invest Northern Ireland.

‘There are vast amounts of untapped energy in the seas around us, so today marks a major milestone,’ said Northern Ireland’s Junior Energy Minister Robin Newton. In 2008 some 6 percent of Northern Irish electricity came from indigenous renewable energy, mostly from 19 land-based wind-farms across Northern Ireland which produced just under 240MW. However, offshore wind and tidal stream projects could yield as much as 1.2GW in time, thereby greatly reducing the province’s dependency on imported fossil fuels.

Design consultation for leasing would start in April, leasing itself in September, and first rights might be awarded as soon as spring 2012. Approximately 11,000 offshore wind turbines may be built throughout Britain and Ireland over the next 20 years. And because about a quarter of these turbines will be located within 150 nautical miles of Belfast, supply chain enterprises in the Harbour area stand to benefit enormously. As NI Energy Minister Arlene Foster concluded: “Invest NI will help local businesses engage and improve their competitive advantage to create jobs and attract inward investment.’ I

Newport firm scoops top UK business award

© flickr/Aran Chandran

||| A Newport company established in 2005 has been named as the UK’s most outstanding business. Abriox Limited received a £25,000 prize from the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), sponsored by RBS and Natwest. The judges particularly praised its innovative Merlin oil and gas pipeline monitoring system, which is now used to automatically check all the UK’s gas pipelines for corrosion in Praised • Merlin gas monitoring system a safe and environmentally sound way.

At the awards ceremony Neville Reyner, President of the BCC, called Abriox a passionate young company which had nurtured its own idea into an internationally-renowned product. Last year the firm was named Welsh Company of the Year 2010, having previously scooped the top award for British Achievement in International Business. Recent Abriox innovations include nitrogen sleeve rectifier monitors, trialled since January, and a pipeline location feature remotely accessible by mobile phone or special software, launched in February. I

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success story

Mastering international markets Originating as a polytechnic students’ venture, Frenger has graduated into a fully fledged, border-defying business service. Over 25 years, clients have included Le Monde, Microsoft, and even the French and Estonian governments. Chairman Jean-Noël Mermet describes lessons learned, opportunities grasped and partnerships formed along the way.

F

renger offers corporate advice to French and British companies wishing to develop their business activities in foreign markets. It has ridden the ups and downs of the business cycle over the past 26 years by adapting its activities to the ever changing requirements of its clients. Jean-Noël Mermet has also built up an impressive contacts list in the UK and France upon which the success of Frenger has been established.

Jean-Noël, founder and chairman of Frenger, has made a business out of his acute understanding of cultural and national business issues initially mainly between the UK and France. Nowadays he applies his skills in many other markets including North America and Scandinavia. Many businesses are afraid of entering a new territory or country, but he goes in boldly, holding them by the hand, opening doors and creating business opportunities for his clients.

Frenger is essentially a management consultancy and one of the key activities of this firm, which annually earns £2m in fees, is to find businesses that could be acquired for clients who want to set up in a foreign country. Clients will typically come to Mr Mermet without the name of their desired partner, and will ask him to find opportunities and negotiate a price.

Frenger was born out of a partnership of several students at Middlesex Polytechnic (today’s University) in 1983. Jean-Noël Mermet was completing a European Business Administration degree and was, in his own words, ‘bored with student life. I wanted to get started

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Founder & Chairman of Frenger • Jean-Noël Mermet

into real business life’. He set up an office in his home in north London, and needed a name. A brainstorming session of he and his then colleagues produced “Frenger”, a contraction of French/English/German, and the business was on the road.

Early clients were largely French companies who

wanted to develop sales in the UK market and needed automotive sector and in heavy engineering. He tells representatives. One such was a French fashion mailhow some ‘dot-com’ businesses who had obtained order catalogue company called Cyrillus that was about large amounts of money from investors, hired him, in to launch in the UK and did not wish to recruit people 2000, to acquire numerous businesses at break neck and manage a local office. So the ever adaptable Mermet speed. This was at the peak of the boom and he had developed a new service, called Frenger Business reservations about their sustainability. These businesses Services (FBS) furnishing every need for Cyrillus and duly went bust, and he says there have been a number enabling them to generate sales of £5m without having of times when he has not only acquired businesses for to invest in a local team. This FBS division still works clients but also had to sell them a few months later for clients such as Le Monde, Lagardere, when the client was in desperate straits. ‘It Oberthur, Ineo, Alma Consulting Group was a bit depressing. We never knew if we and at one time Microsoft and the French would actually get paid. It was a fun time While Frenger Government. though and we met some very exciting But as the Single Economic market has worked for entrepreneurs.’ developed, non-profit making competitors many UK regions Frenger itself grew during that period in the past, he moved into the field and this prompted to the point where it was contemplating Mr Mermet to add an additional arm to laments that turning itself into a fully-fledged corporate his business. M&A became in the mid 90’s this territory is finance boutique with City of London a more popular solution for French and under pressure offices. While its clients reeled as the British companies who were looking to from recent bubble burst, Mr Mermet decided to put expand in a foreign market. This coincided government these plans on hold to weather the storm. with growing boldness, in particular among policy.

Today, Frenger may handle depending on French companies, who were realising they the year some 10% of the 120 SMEs bought were hamstrung by either the size of their annually by French and British companies local markets or the lack of sufficient growth in each other’s markets. But his aspirations and foreign markets could be entered successfully, so do not reach for the stars. long as they managed the risk properly. That is where Since the M&A business fluctuates greatly with the economic cycle, Jean Noël established a third arm to Mr Mermet came in. For he could show to clients that he understood the way the British marketplace worked, as his firm. Frenger works for national, regional and city he had worked there for a decade. Many learnt to trust development agencies, like Austria, Wallonia, Estonia and Ontario who want to attract foreign businesses to him and concluded their first acquisition in a foreign country with his assistance. their areas.

Mr Mermet says trust is essential to the M&A While he has worked for many UK regions in the past, he laments that this territory is under pressure business as clients need to share with him their strategies, aspirations and resources available. He finds from recent government policy. that once a level of trust has grown between himself Mr Mermet’s business secret is never to seek to grow too large during the good times, otherwise the and the client, the client returns to him repeatedly for further mergers and acquisitions business. His record growth becomes unsustainable during the bad times so far is 8 completed transactions for the same client. when business is thin, and resources become too heavy a cost burden. He has seen enough businesses grow ‘When you establish such trust with a client, they come back to you and explain the challenge they have and too large for their own good and collapse when the then ask, “can you help me?” They want the confidence economy goes into retreat. Indeed, he has participated of working with someone who has delivered the goods in building some of those very businesses which for them in the past and who will know quickly how to subsequently failed. work with them. They have seen that I can be trusted, This moderation enables him to lead the good life, because I always take a long term view in my business with eight weeks holiday each year in his South of relationship. I have clients who have been with me for France holiday home. His personal recipe is simplicity 20 years and I know more about their business than itself. He does not hanker after the massive wealth that might have been earned by a more acquisitive man. some of their executives who have only been there a few years!’

‘I have reached the level where I am making enough money to satisfy my needs. For me quality of life is Frenger’s clients range across the spectrum, from those engaged in the e-economy to those in the important.’ I N.K.

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mba and business education Introduction

S

tudents once gained their MBA after a long, often two year course in an academic institution (Harvard was the best known) detached from the real world. They came out with much theory of management, many case studies carefully crafted, and an understanding of complex management models geared round the corporation. This form of study is no longer possible.

First of all, few students can afford to seclude themselves in almost monastic circumstances, for two years. Second, education is no longer about seclusion, it is about engagement.

This engagement can take a number of forms, as our Focus shows. First, it is engagement with business and organisations. The student who does not mix and grasp the modus operandi of an organisation will not work well within one, whatever his qualifications. So students need work experience before they go for theory.

Employers understand that. Moreover, few these days can lose students working inside an organisation to an academic retreat, so many more students are having to work and learn at the same time.

Second, students are being encouraged to engage with more cultures, both of the corporate and national variety. This is another aspect of the real world of learning, what people used to refer to as the ‘university of life’ now being encouraged by business school courses. The student versed in the American or British or French corporate ethos may work well in companies exhibiting that ethos. But the concept of the job for life is fast disappearing, so the employee needs to be adaptable. The character needs to fit the structure, rather than the structure, the person. Education has a key role in this process.

Third, employers say that they are unable to recruit sufficient numbers of trained engineers in the UK. This

presents a particular problem for the many highly advanced industrial companies like Alstom who have existing plants in the UK, or wish to expand their presence. This lack of industrial skills hampers the British economy more widely, say many employers.

Education in short, whether it be for business or for pure scholarship, is responding and adapting to global and economic pressures. As both grow in cost, people will use the term ‘value for money’ not with the sneer that once they would, but with the confidence that they are receiving something of value, but also something that will change and grow their lives. I

Focus contents 34 Business Education Timeline The academic sector

36 An academic system in flux 38 Higher education in Britain and France a tale of two systems 40 An education to widen horizons MBAs for business

42 Managing High Potentials: The EMBA Challenge 44 Cross-cultural management and students abroad 46 Harnessing social media for worldwide learning 48 Back to School – or how a little relearning never hurts 50 How the MBA is worth a 21% pay rise

51 Erasmus takes abroad Europe’s educational message How to choose an MBA

52 Earning the MBA you can rely on 54 Rating the rankings 55 FT rankings Case Studies

56 A new partnership between Employers and Educators 57 Renault puts graduates in the driving seat 58 Waste not, want not! Veolia builds links to British universities 59 Delivering Britain’s critical energy skills

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Business Education Timeline The Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Paris (now ESCP Europe) becomes the first and oldest surviving business school in the world

1881

1898

Pennsylvania University’s Wharton School is the world’s first collegiate business school

Chicago University’s Booth School offers PhD programmes and an Executive MBA

1946 The American Institute for Foreign Trade, a graduate management school, focuses exclusively on global business

© flickr/Patricia Drury

The first fully fledged British business school in Britain is founded in Birmingham, as the university’s School of Commerce

1910

1918

Harvard Business School offers an MBA

University of Edinburgh gains a faculty for business studies

1964

© wikipedia/Carolus

© wikipedia/JimmyGuano

1902

© wikipedia/Philip Allfrey

© wikipedia/R-Hudit

1819

1957 INSEAD in Fontainebleau is the first European institution to offer an MBA programme

1964 – Foundation of the London Business School in Regent’s Park.

Four years later they were the first school outside the USA to offer a Sloan Fellowship MSc, in 1993 they launched a Masters of Finance programme, and in 2008 the DubaiLondon Executive MBA welcomed its first students

1973

1983

1991

The École des Affaires de Paris (EAP) (which became ESCP-EAP and is now ESCP Europe) leads the world in setting up campuses in three countries

Glasgow’s Strathclyde Business School becomes the first in Britain to offer a distance learning MBA programme

1991 – EDHEC, founded in Lille in 1906, sets up branch in Nice from where it runs Masters in Management and MBAs

1996

2010

The European Commission awards funding to the CEIBS (China Europe International Business School)

The Said Business School, a multidisciplinary Institute affiliated with the University of Oxford, is opened

London School of Business and Finance makes its MBA lectures and course materials freely available on Facebook

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© wikipedia/Winky

1994

Where French meets business. f o c us

France and the UK are important economic partners and bilateral trade has increased tremendously.

Cut through linguistic and cultural barriers, and you have a much more powerful and competitive edge.

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We have the credentials, capacity and the commitment to develop customised French classes for everyone in your company, from beginners to advanced learners, making French work for you.

As well as teaching your staff the language, we’ll also give them an insight into French culture and the French way of doing business.

Start a course whenever it is most convenient for you, at any point in the year, at any time from 8am to 8pm, at your premises or ours in South Kensington, London.

For more information, please contact us: Institut Français - Corporate Language Training: 020 7581 1069 or corporate.training@ambafrance.org.uk

info - april / may 2011 - 35

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The academic sector

An academic system in flux French academic institutions cannot rest on their laurels. They must benchmark themselves against British and other institutions and educational systems, which have their own strengths, says Professor Philippe Lane, AttachĂŠ for Higher Education, French Embassy in the UK.

F

ranco-British higher education cooperation is structured along four main axes: training and research networks, which constitute the higher education foundation of French Studies; student and teacher mobility; monitoring scientific trends;, and exchange of good practice.

networks is by creating French visiting professorships within the British network: these delegations constitute an extraordinary way of building long-lasting relations between universities and raising awareness of French research.

Cooperation networks Although naturally orientated towards the US, and more interested in cooperating with Asia rather than with Europe, our British partners pay close attention to the Bologna Process1. They are convinced that they must employ the American system as a model, notably regarding financing methods, but are nevertheless conscious of the need to develop links with European universities, principally in research, but also for competition and market reasons.

The creation of the French National Research Agency in 2005 was based on the structure of existing financing and research bodies in the UK (Research Councils) and in Europe (ERC), and has stimulated new networks.

Double degrees are often the products of these networks. A study carried out in August 2010 identified more than 200 double French-British degrees, established by engineering and business schools (77 French institutions). Now there are around 40 double Masters degrees (Erasmus Mundus and others) identified at organisations (around 30 French universities). Joint thesis supervision is equally becoming more and more common.

An excellent way of promoting or reinforcing these

It is important to carefully maintain the historical links with our privileged partners. These are the departments of French Studies, that have lost large numbers of students and are looking for our support.

In order to ensure their survival, such departments have sometimes linked with other departments (European Studies, International Studies, Media Studies, Cinema Studies, etc) and extremely dynamic specialised groups in the realm of French Studies.

Examples include the Society for French Studies, the Society for the Study of French History, the Association for the Study of Modern and Contemporary France, the Society for Francophone and Post-colonial Studies, the Association of University Professors and Heads of French, the Association for French Language Study.

All of these constitute a gateway to numerous other Human Sciences and Social Sciences disciplines.

French studies, conferences and debates

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Student mobility—promoting study in France Exchanges between France and the UK are significant: with more than 13,000 French students in the UK (of which 2,500 are PhD and 1,500 postdoctoral) and nearly 3,000 British students in France. Inspite of this imbalance, France remains number one for the preferred destinations in Europe.

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The Lycée Louis-le-Grand famously prepares students for entry to Grandes Ecoles

The mobility of researchers is also an advantage. Of the 1,200 researchers that make up the CNRS, around 150 come on mission to the UK each year, in effect 12.5 percent of the total student population. British universities benefit from a great level of autonomy and prefer informal agreements, whilst French universities prefer more structured agreements. In addition, British universities are particularly keen to build up contacts in research, hence the important need for a ‘networking’ component.

Higher education cooperation maintains regular contacts with French and British students, and other international students involved in Franco-British relations, thanks notably to French student societies.

Monitoring trends and exchanging knowledge The British government and university vice chancellors have over the last few years sketched out the broad outlines of a new higher education landscape. In large part they have been helped by positive changes in the organisation, evaluation and financing of British research, set against an international context.

Despite the elevated cost of studies and the selection

of students from the best universities, the statistics published by HESA (the Higher Education Statistics Agency) reveal that British universities are welcoming more and more students, including foreign students from outside the EU who pay two or three times more tuition fees than students from the EU or “home students”.

The Department for Higher Education Cooperation regularly organises visits by parliamentarians, university presidents, and directors of the Grandes Ecoles (Ecole Normale Supérieure, Ecole Nationale d’Administration, Sciences Po). These trips organise themselves around themes such as the governing of universities, the financing of studies and research, university-business relations, financing of preventive archaeology, and the recruitment and training of senior civil servants, etc.

During this period of reform in France, this ‘benchmarking’ is strategic, not only for adopting good practice, but also to avoid errors or potential reciprocal misunderstandings.

Promotion of the French language and Francophonie is also facilitated by these visits and exchanges to the betterment of relations between both countries. I 1 Intergovernmental initiative which aims to create a European Higher Education Area and to promote the European system of higher education worldwide.

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Higher education in Britain and France – a tale of two systems Universities on either side of the Channel have traditionally followed divergent paths. Now that both nations face similar challenges, what can they learn from each other? asks Philippe Chalon of the Cercle d’outre-Manche.

A

© Andrew Dunn, 09 September 2004. www.andrewdunnphoto.com

ll major higher education institutions are currently facing deep changes. Universities contend for the best students and the best teachers. Critical mass, fundraising, research contracts and campus growth are top of any dean’s or government’s agenda. Beyond the educative issue, what is at stake here is the ability, especially in European countries, to rank high in the global battle for knowledge and innovation.

Although there are about the same number of students in France and in the UK (around 2.3 million),

Cambridge University • A worldwide brand

38 - info - april / may 2011

higher education institutions in France are about 25 times more numerous: 4,305 French academia (most of them monodisciplinary), as opposed to only 169 British academia (pluridisciplinary).

Do higher fees raise expectations?

Another fundamental difference lies in tuition fees.

French universities are selection-free and cost-free but the drop-out rates are phenomenal - nearly 50 percent compared to only 7.4 percent in the UK. That is why fewer French students are willing to go to universities and would rather try and enter the prestigious grandes écoles. Alternatively they choose a two-year professional course in the job-oriented IUTs (Institut Universitaire de Technologie).

France relies a bit too much on a form of negative selection. By contrast, the UK favours a more positive selection process: access to academia is fairly selective but each student is looked after from his first day at university until graduation day. This might partly explain why youth employment rate is vastly superior in the UK (52.1 percent) compared to 31.5 percent in France.

Perhaps the most perverse effect of the British system lies in the fact that British students often feel pretty sure they will get their degree eventually – hence

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they will demonstrate less academic efforts.

After all, they are paying for it, and no small fry: British university fees round up to some £4,000 a year on average for a Bachelor’s degree. With a typical student loan standing at £20,000, graduates feel more like customers than users. Therefore studying needs to pay back. But that is precisely why the British recruitment system is skill-based, not degreebased: something fairly unconceivable in France, where a degree in history or psychology is considered a laughing matter in the banking sector or in marketing.

Youth employment rate is vastly superior in the UK (52.1 percent) compared to 31.5 percent in France.

© wikipedia/Carcharoth

World-beating reputations Over the last 15 years, British universities have gained worldwide recognition for their research and business acumen. Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial College and the LSE have become worldwide “brands” and stand at the top of most international rankings.

Even if the UK still lags behind the results achieved

by Berkeley or the MIT, for instance, the dynamic that has been created in London or Oxbridge can now stand up to what is being performed in the US. That successful trend has been widely pursued in Manchester, Glasgow

Reforming French universities is a huge challenge faced by the French Government

and Bristol. These business clusters beckon investors from all over the UK, but also from Western Europe, from the US and increasingly from Asia.

British challenges, French reforms However, British universities were severely affected by spending cuts as they have been told to get ready for a 35 percent decrease of their funding over the next four years.

Students face a major rise in college degree costs, with tuition fees ranging from at least £6,000 to £9,000 a year. The UK decisions will almost inevitably lead to a more market-driven sector as institutions seek to recover decreases in revenue. The question is how the push factor of a fee hike would play out against the attractions of British universities.

Ever since the recent reform that granted more autonomy to its universities, France has welcomed a rush of new ideas. Business clusters have been set up, some universities have decided to create high-tech centres and most higher education institutions have sought international partnerships to lure and retain talent. Overhauling its grandes écoles and its universities is the tremendous task currently undertaken by the French government, in particular with the creation of ten “business excellence centres”, as a result of a merger between several universities. France is now adapting itself more rapidly in order to keep pace with innovation and to catch up with the leading pack.

Attracting foreign talent Meanwhile, the UK succeeds in attracting 100,000 more international students than France (360,000 versus 260,000). In a European survey conducted two years ago, all British universities declared they had a brand management policy, against 50 percent of their French counterparts. Brand management and marketing policies are the next battles to be fought by French universities.

The role that universities and public research organisations play in our economies is crucial.

Tomorrow’s economy will depend even more on technological innovation and on intellectual property.

But now, with the weight of fiscal deficits, there is a risk of such spending being cut. This would be a mistake.

While cuts may provide short-term fiscal relief, they will hurt growth in the long term. I Philippe Chalon is Secretary General of the Cercle d’outreManche

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An education to widen horizons French and British young people are able to benefit from educational opportunities in the others’ country through a remarkable and unique scheme. Here, Lord Robin Janvrin, a trustee of the Entente Cordiale Scholarship Trust, describes how it works and how to benefit from it.

William the Conqueror painted by an unknown artist in 1620

T

wickenham is a good place to start if we are discussing the Entente Cordiale. It normally takes the France-England rugby game to focus the media world for a brief moment on the infinitely complex relationship between the United Kingdom and France.

This year there were re-enactments of Crécy produced by the British television and no doubt there was mention of William the Conqueror in the coverage across the Channel. Good fun certainly, but it also serves to remind us not only of the history but also how central is this relationship to both our countries now – in politics, economics, the military, across the cultural world and the creative arts, the sports field, you name it – and how crucial it will be in the future.

We should therefore be looking for ways to invest

40 - info - april / may 2011

in it. One way that we can do so is through the Entente Cordiale Scholarship Trust. The immediate aim of the Trust is to provide for student exchanges at postgraduate level both ways across the Channel. The long term objective is to build up a group of exceptionally capable young men and women in the UK and France with a real knowledge of each others’ countries – the leaders and decision-makers of tomorrow across the widest possible range of disciplines.

The Trust was set up in 1995 by an agreement between Prime Minister John Major and French President Jacques Chirac to offer bursaries for a few (around 10-15 a year) carefully selected and very high calibre students whose academic work would benefit from study across the Channel. The scheme offers financial assistance (tuition fees and living expenses) at three levels: a full postgraduate scholarship year at a French University or Grande Ecole; a short term scholarship of up to six months for doctorate or post doctorate research in a French research institution; and a one month intensive French course for post graduate students planning to study in France who wish to enhance their language skills. There are active associations on both sides of the Channel who are building an influential and increasingly valuable network of alumni and sponsors across many walks of life.

The Trust has no endowment funds of its own, so relies on regular fundraising. As it is administered by the French Embassy in London and the British Embassy in Paris who meet the management costs, all funds raised go directly to the financial support of the students on the Entente Cordiale exchanges.

Individuals, Foundations and Corporations have given generously in the past to support this scheme. I If you would be interested in learning more about the Entente Cordiale Scholarship Trust do please contact Lord Janvrin as Chair of the Trustees or the Attaché de Coopération Universitaire, Ambassade de France au Royaume-Uni, 23 Cromwell Road, London SW7 2EL.

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MBAs for business

Managing High Potentials: The EMBA Challenge Executive MBAs have become an increasingly attractive alternative to conventional MBAs. And this trend, as Patrick Gougeon of ESCP London explains, has to do with changes in technology and attitudes, individual career expectations and the globalised 21st century marketplace.

O

ver the last decade Executive MBAs have become most popular, and the reasons are well recognised.

Traditional full-time MBAs were designed for young candidates with only a few years of experience after their undergraduate studies. The idea was to provide them with the skills to progress from specialists to managerial positions. Today, however, full-time MBAs seem to be less attractive. Maybe one explanation is that many undergraduate programmes already include management courses in their curriculum, which weakens the need for an MBA so soon after graduation.

In fact, the demand for MBA studies now tends to appear later on in one’s career path, after 10 to 15 years of experience, when crucial professional choices have to be made. And while full-time MBA participants incur high opportunity costs because of the twoyear job interruption period, EMBAs do not. In a fast changing environment, where flexibility and mobility are key, being away from business can be awkward, particularly for candidates in their thirties and above.

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£50,000

42 - info - april / may 2011

Harnessing technology Instead EMBAs are designed to be compatible with fulltime employment, provided employers are prepared to be flexible. So can Executive MBAs be “as good as” traditional, two-year full-time MBAs? Today we know the answer to this major question: yes!

The information and communications technological breakthrough has allowed for the introduction of new pedagogical techniques and organisations, which are now well proven and mastered. Platforms allowing online delivery and access to all type of documents are now a common tool.

They facilitate group work the cost of an MBA for participants located in from a first class various countries, and over business school the years business schools have learned how to use this technology efficiently.

Retaining “high potentials” Let’s first remember the dramatic change which has affected the business environment over recent decades as a consequence of globalisation and deregulation.

More instability and uncertainty have forced

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© Brand Management Conference - Lugano

companies to acquire “strategic agility”. Flexibility and mobility of capital, both physical and human, are nowadays an imperative to foster the ability to react, and take advantage of unanticipated opportunities. This pro-active imperative has changed the implicit contract between employees and their firm, with more staff members focusing on the transferability of their own skills and knowhow.

In other words, managers create value for themselves, by securing their own future, rather than creating value for a company they may well leave one day. Peer recognition Demand for MBAs tends to appear later in the career path means that networking outside their company has become crucial, and EMBAs effectively help with that. Many companies Considering the high price of EMBAs – £50,000 and have not yet fully integrated this evolution into their above for first class business schools – most participants human resource management strategy, which may are at least partially sponsored by their company. EMBA explain why so much “organisational capital” has candidates tend to stay loyal because they appreciate been destroyed over recent years. To retain the best the contribution the company has made for them and staff and in particular those who have been identified see sponsorship almost as a “vote of confidence”. as “high potentials”, companies need to create the conditions that let them foresee Managing expectations challenging career prospects. Sponsoring As a result EMBA candidates often feel no Sponsoring an need to look elsewhere, as they expect to be their EMBA is one way, as it is a clear signal EMBA is not that the firm counts on them to lead in the considered for attractive career opportunities like allocating a future. in their existing company. However, the bonus. It should sponsoring company often cannot manage be treated as an Building character and learning to such expectations. Critical thinking, curiosity, investment in listen entrepreneurial spirit, team building and leadership, which are core features of an Business schools are assessed and human capital and managed ranked with reference to the satisfaction EMBA programme, can dramatically alter the and future career progression of their over time. managerial attitude of participants. Fresh executive graduates develop critical views, participants. As a result they need to focus on these aspects first. Yet what does that are eager to bring change, and want to be imply for the EMBA programme philosophy, its content involved in new ventures. and pedagogy? Technical skills acquired in finance, Too often companies see their financial support marketing and management are necessary but not for an EMBA as a reward for past performance, or a decisive. Rather, listening to others and learning from way to retain an outstanding employee by helping them, whoever they are, counts for more. them achieve their goal. But sponsoring an EMBA is Curiosity, respect, communication and language not like allocating a bonus. It should be treated as an skills – these all make the difference and characterise investment in human capital and managed over time, a true leader in a global world. This is the focal point considering the long term strategy of the company and for EMBAs because it serves the individual and clearly seeing how the candidate can fit with this. When that boosts their potential. It can also serve companies point is understood, the EMBA is clearly beneficial for which integrate the EMBA in their management of both parties; the candidate and their sponsor. I human resources.

Patrick Gougeon, ESCP Europe, UK Director

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Cross-cultural management and students abroad Executive MBAs reflect the growing transglobalisation of companies by taking students to

B

usiness students are keen to spend time abroad during their studies, and there are now a wide range of exchange programmes and double degrees allowing them to do so. Students on MBA programmes are typically around 30-years-old and join for the international outlook on business.

Studying abroad has many benefits, the most important of which is the raising of their international profile, something that makes them more appealing to the new requirements of the job market. In the current context, economic globalisation and the inherent population moves therein have brought about an increased cultural diversity within companies.

Managers are expected to be able to coordinate international teams and to deal with cross-cultural issues on a day-to-day basis. Moreover, managers are often requested to relocate to other countries and to have multilingual skills. Being able to handle crosscultural management has become crucial in many fields, such as international project management, mergers and acquisitions, and business negotiations.

However, cultural differences often result in varying degrees of conflict and can have an economic impact on companies.

Moving abroad puts a huge amount of pressure on an individual, particularly on a young person: emigration is a massive change, and change causes stress. Coping with the pressure of a foreign environment, being stripped of a network of family and friends, interacting with people you do not share a common cultural background with, speaking in a language that is not your mother tongue – all of these things are part of the experience, but many underestimate their impact when deciding to study abroad. At the London campus of ESCP Europe, we experience these cross-cultural aspects on a daily basis.

For example, the EMBA (executive MBA programme)

44 - info - april / may 2011

© http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Escp-London.jpg

multiple countries and cultures, says Florence Mele.

ESCP Europe London Campus

offers a real-life laboratory to observe the impact of cross-cultural issues on project management. Within the programme, students of 25 nationalities have to study together for at least one year. They are split into workgroups of four students all of nationalities and expected to carry out group-work projects in most modules. Most of them have never lived in the UK before; they all come from different backgrounds and cultures and have great expectations about their period of study in London.

As far as group work is concerned, national prejudices quickly come to the surface. Some nationalities like to plan their group work far in advance and execute it in an intense fashion.

Others have a more ‘laid back’ approach. For the most part, students are very happy with the cross cultural exchanges and different ways of working.

As our students say, ‘the skills developed are not just technical (finance, strategy, marketing) but also entail a heavy dose of interdisciplinary management, working with different personalities and collective decision-making. I Florence Mele ESCP Europe UK Director of Studies

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ACCELERATE YOUR CAREER WITH OUR EUROPEAN EXECUTIVE MBA Incorporating five campuses across Europe (London, Paris, Berlin, Madrid and Turin), the ESCP Europe EMBA is a flexible programme which focuses on leadership and innovation. Capitalising on our unique pan-European structure, it offers a truly multicultural qualification.

Designed to maximise your potential and ensure your professional success, our EMBA programme is ranked 1st in the world for career progression by the Financial Times, with ESCP Europe as a whole consistently placing amongst the top business schools in Europe.

Take advantage of: ǩ The excellent networking opportunities offered by our 35,000-strong alumni ǩ $ SURJUDPPH WDLORUHG WR VXLW \RXU QHHGV ǩ $Q DZDUG ZLQQLQJ PHWKRGRORJ\ ǩ 'LUHFW H[SHULHQFH LQ LQWHUQDWLRQDO EXVLQHVV SUDFWLFHV * FT EMBA Rankings, 2010

Find out more about the EMBA at our Taster Events, taking place at the London campus.

For more information, contact Linda Brunello. Tel: +44 (0)20 7443 8842, Email: lbrunello@escpeurope.eu, or visit our website: www.escpeurope.eu/execed-london.

info - april / may 2011 - 45

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Harnessing social media for worldwide learning Technology really allows for a virtual meeting of minds across the world, explains Valery Kisilevsky of the London School of Business and Finance – in fact, not only can the internet promote MBA courses, these days it can even run them

W

© flickr/yisris

e’re currently living in ‘the information age’, and if we stop to think, it’s tough to imagine a world where we aren’t blessed with the ability to send that vital email, book our travel, and conduct our personal banking - all from the comfort of home.

With journalists now reporting in real-time through live blogs, smart phones, and micro-blog sites, technology has truly transformed the way we communicate information. Global communication has become inexpensive and widely available to everyone.

We’re now able to see each other in real- time, regardless of where we are in the world. The convergence of

Learning on the go • More and more educational content is being delivered via mobile phone

46 - info - april / may 2011

technology in recent decades has been such that we’ve even transformed the way in which we learn, and acquire information.

Instant accessibility everywhere From the abacus to the quantum computer the gradual yet substantial evolution of technology in recent decades has changed the way in which we obtain and retain information. Increased globalisation has brought and will continue to bring new opportunities to developing countries, along with a greater access to developed markets and technology; making way for more distance learning opportunities. As a result, higher education has and will become more accessible, no matter where we live, or where we come from.

Just last year Bill Gates made the confident prediction: “Five years from now you’ll be able to find the best lectures in the world on the web for free”, and he was right. Only his vision has been realised four years early.

Harnessing social media for learning At the London School of Business and Finance, a global education institution, we pride ourselves on a forwardthinking approach, and we were one of the first to recognise and embrace the shift in traditional learning cultures. Driven by our revolutionary approach to education we launched the first online Global MBA using the Facebook platform.

© flickr/Copyright by World Economic Forum swiss-image.ch/Photo by Moritz Hager

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Last year Bill Gates predicted that the best lectures in the world would be made available for free on the web

Attracting over 85,000 fans in its first three months, students can access lectures with knowledgeable industry leaders, as well as interactive case studies and panel discussions; free of charge. There are two main benefits to this: Those who wish to study for a formal MBA can explore the quality of the programme, as well as their own suitability for the course, before they make any financial commitment. Additionally, those who aren’t looking to train for a full time MBA can still use the lectures to better equip themselves for global business through a familiar platform. As a result, they’ll be better prepared for speaking to bank managers more effectively about their finances, or even for writing marketing and growth strategies for a small business.

Reaching more students As the world’s largest social network, Facebook allows us to deliver business education content to as many people around the world as possible. It allows for teaching institutes to break through geographical and financial barriers and reach a wider variety of students.

Excitingly, we are also about to make our content available through mobile devices and smartphones, because as Morgan Stanley estimates, in the next five years more people will connect to the internet via a

mobile phone rather than a PC. In fact, the development of smart phones has given rise to greater opportunities for people in regions like Africa, who have greater access to smartphones than they do to computers. In support of this idea, Dr Mike Short, VP of research and development at Telefonica 02 said: “If education is not on your handset, you are missing out.”

Breaking barriers, changing values The fact is people expect greater accessibility from online platforms, as well as the ability to use them alongside their own personal commitments. They want instant feedback and ultimately direct contact with each other through these networks. Learning values have shifted in recent years so that it is no longer just about the ability to break through geographical and social barriers – it’s now about adapting technology to suit our personal learning styles. This was the motivation behind the Global MBA at LSBF, and we have been able to target our audiences, and create a unique, richer learning environment for them to train for global business success. I Valery Kisilevsky is the Group Managing Director of the London School of Business and Finance, a London-based business school with campuses in Birmingham, Manchester and Toronto.

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Back to School – or how a little relearning never hurts After 15 years professional experience including some ten years in banking and corporate finance in the City, Jean-Philippe Verdier went back to the benches of business school. Now freshly graduated from the Sloan Masters in Leadership and Strategy, he tells us the what, why and how.

What exactly is the Sloan Masters in Leadership and Strategy at London Business School?

What type of person should consider the Sloan programme?

The Sloan Masters is an intensive one-year full-time executive programme taught at London Business School (and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Stanford), which delivers a Masters in Leadership and Strategy. It is designed for professionals with a minimum of 10 to 15 years experience, who aspire to broaden their skills and accelerate their move to more senior or leadership positions.

Taking inspiration from my peers, any manager who sees the value an executive programme can bring to his or her career and personal endeavour over a short to medium term should consider the Sloan. It is about someone motivated by the learning experience, taking a step back to get a bigger picture and interested in refreshing their knowledge and skill set.

What advantages do you get from studying in London?

What motivated you to take this course?

I long had in mind the benefits of pursuing a further advanced management degree after I graduated from my business school (Reims Management School). I strongly believe in the value of training and personal development as a key to future personal and professional advancement. A great quote by Pasteur illustrates well that principle, which is that “Chance favours the prepared mind”.

The emphasis and structure of the programme matches those objectives: firstly, it is a full-time executive programme - meaning that you are really dedicated to the learning experience; secondly, it is aimed at a diversity of managers with 10-30 years professional experience, from whom you do learn a lot; thirdly, it focuses on leadership and strategy, which encompasses an array of senior management disciplines; and finally, London Business School is well known for its academic excellence, diverse network and international standing.

48 - info - april / may 2011

Being in the centre of London provides obvious advantages, notably in terms of what the city has to offer – socially or culturally. As a hub and dynamic city, London also offers diversity and numerous opportunities to meet managers from international companies.

What has your experience been like?

It has delivered what was written on the tin! The year has been full and rich. Imagine the melting pot of a class of 53 people, representing over 20 nationalities, and who all together accumulate hundreds of years of professional experience, in so many combinations of sectors and roles. You can envisage the interesting and sometimes opinionated exchanges we’ve had in class and study groups – first hand experience of what diversity means, and great lessons in listening and debating skills! On top of that, mixing with the 1,000+ other students and outside professionals on campus was really special.

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London Business School located beside Regents Park was designed in 1823 by John Nash

The balance between lectures was also very good: half cover “core” topics, such as strategy, organisational behaviour, management leadership, finance, marketing, and a lot of practical soft skills. The other half is a personal choice of over 100 subjects, eg finance, entrepreneurship, clean-tech, corporate turnaround.

This enables students to gain full ownership of their professional and personal project.

Nor should one forget London Business School’s first class faculty and all the clubs, conferences and career services that the school offers. It certainly is a challenge to do it all when you are torn in all sorts of directions...

How has the program shaped your approach to business and leadership? Has it made you a better leader?

The Sloan programme has undeniably deepened my appreciation of business and I think equipped me with useful tools to address problematics of a broader business, societal or human nature..

What were the key benefits of the programme from a personal and professional perspective?

More than a pure academic and business diploma, the Sloan is an all encompassing journey. It is also about strengthening soft skills and providing the resources to reflect and enrich oneself as a manager. The benefit of time decompression that we so often lack in our

day-to-day job or life is crucial in that exercise. What is attractive is the ability to learn and stretch one’s mindset in such a different way from what we can generally do in our busy professional environment, or in our social circles. The diverse network of new friends and connections is also very enriching.

How have you enjoyed the campus activities?

The School has a lot to offer in terms of clubs, social activities, conferences, or professional encounters. It simply does not stop, and you can be guaranteed to have something you are interested in almost every evening.

It’s a question of choice. Personally I also wanted to experiment and I took improvisation acting classes: one day I had to jump off the Eiffel Tower, another one we had to improvise a 10-minute scene as we went as a whole group. Fun and the learning of group dynamics and collaboration are not that far away.

What was your most memorable moment?

The ten-day International Assignment in Shanghai with the class and faculty was a powerful eye-opener on China. We had dedicated economics lectures ahead of the trip and in Shanghai itself, topics to research and present in groups, meetings with local and international companies in China, London Business School’s Leaders Conference in Shanghai and the chance to get to the EXPO. Not to mention class-wide serious nightlife. I

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How the MBA is worth a 21% pay rise Business schools want to give aspiring managers an MBA qualification that suits them for today’s fast changing economy, for the divergent needs of corporations and their managers and for the managers own personal advancement. INFO surveyed some schools

T

he Master of Business Administration is the flagship of many business schools. Ambitious would-be managers see the qualification as the route to a higher salary, as the passage into a superior position, as an educational tool which they can use to understand a company and its management. Schools vary in the level at which they pitch the MBA, even if the ultimate goals are similar.

The EDHEC Business School sets very high aspirations for its qualification. Benoit Arnaud says that his students ‘get to understand the underlying causes of economic developments. ... our MBA helps our students gain new frameworks for decision making and action.’

Students are taught by a philosophy professor, to gain the deep level of understanding. Mr Arnaud says the ten-month long MBA provides an opportunity to step back, take stock and reflect on your situation.’

The difference between this approach and the perhaps more functional approach taken by the Grenoble Graduate School of Business is marked.

Philip Eyre, its MBA director and Nancy Armstrong, the director of studies, argue that the MBA programme should ‘provide core knowledge in all functional areas

Grenoble Ecole de Management, GGSB’s parent company

50 - info - april / may 2011

Altering Lives • EDHEC

of business and develop technical and interpersonal skills for managers today.’ The school follows through with this approach by convening a Professional Advisory Board, composed of the school’s corporate stakeholders, to assess their MBA’s fitness for purpose. They ask the stakeholders: ‘what profiles do they expect to find in their MBA job candidates and to what extent do candidates possess the skills they need.’ Grenoble aims to deliver a programme whose qualities are summed up in the three ‘R’s, ‘Relevance (corporate expectations), Rigour (academic contribution) and Results (student performance’).

The goals pursued by Hull University Business School’s MBA are even more pragmatic. The student who graduates will know how to advance his career in the company. The school argues that this is best achieved by the use of ‘soft skills’ of communication, says Jane Barrett, Hull’s director of MBA career information ‘they need skills such as communication, creativity, leadership and cultural awareness’. She says that the Executive MBA ‘has recently been redesigned to focus on managing complex, multi-faceted business problems’. There is further emphasis on teambuilding.’ I N.K

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Erasmus takes abroad Europe’s educational message Students who wish to have their university education in more than one country have at their disposal the European Commission’s Erasmus Programme. So far, more than two million students have participated. And as more universities reach out to foreign institutions, strengthens.

T

he Erasmus programme is an important tool for encouraging educational diversity. It also fosters not only learning and understanding of another country, but also a sense of community among students from different countries. More than 4,000 higher education institutions participate in Erasmus across the 31 countries and over 2.2 million students have taken part over its 30-year life. Students who participate must be studying for a degree or diploma at a tertiary-level institution. They also need to have completed their first year to take part in an Erasmusparticipating course.

Students who join the Erasmus Programme study or do an internship for a period of between 3 months and an academic year in another European country. The Erasmus Programme guarantees that the period spent abroad is recognised by their university when they come back, so long as they abide by terms previously agreed. Students do not pay extra tuition fees to the university that they visit. Students can also apply for an Erasmus grant to help cover the additional expense of living abroad. The grant available to Erasmus students are not available to those opting to leave the continent to study. Simply having Erasmus on one’s curriculum vitae is seen as being a very positive thing because that one word explains the whole experience of studying abroad.

For many European students, the Erasmus Programme is their first time living and studying abroad. Hence, it has become a cultural phenomenon and is very popular among European students. Tutors are keen for students of subjects such as politics or international relations to participate in Erasmus; the international experience is particularly beneficial.

Some academics have speculated that former Erasmus students will prove to be a powerful force in creating a pan-European identity. The political scientist Stefan Wolff, for example, has argued that “Give it 15, 20 or 25 years, and Europe will be run by leaders with a

ERASMUS was named after the Dutch philosopher Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam, who lived and worked in many places in Europe to expand his knowledge

completely different socialisation from those of today”, referring to the so-called ‘Erasmus generation’.

The European Commission says of the Erasmus Mundus programme supports the following entities: first, higher education institutions that wish to implement joint programmes at postgraduate level or to set-up inter-institutional cooperation partnerships between universities from Europe and targeted ThirdCountries; second, individual students, researchers and university staff who wish to spend a study, research, teaching period in a joint programme or cooperation partnership; third, any organisation active in the field of higher education that wishes to develop projects aimed at enhancing the attractiveness, profile, visibility and image of European higher education worldwide.’ I N.K

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How to choose an MBA

Earning the MBA you can rely on An MBA can be the gateway for business success, but how can business schools maintain standards on a global scale, while keeping pace with changes? Here Dr Robert Owen offers a guide to the Association of MBAs’ accreditation process.

A

ccreditation ensures that an MBA programme is of the highest quality and relevant to the changing world of business. The MBA should reflect changing trends and innovation in postgraduate management education. The accreditation process and the criteria under which MBA programmes are judged reflects this commitment to guaranteeing quality and fostering innovation.

© flickr/University of Denver

Worldwide application Accreditation is international in scope. The Association’s International Accreditation Advisory Board (IAAB), which drafts and constantly monitors the accreditation criteria, is drawn from senior academics

Graduates feel reassured that the standing of their qualification will retain its position of eminence

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at top educational institutions around the world.

Assessing the characteristics of the business school and its MBA programme(s) against these criteria is key to the accreditation process. The Association’s criteria are regarded as the international standard for MBA provision. Currently the Association accredits MBA programmes at 168 institutions in over 70 different countries.

Providing, as it does, a service to all groups in the MBA community, the accreditation of MBA programmes offered worldwide lies at the heart of the Association’s commitment to managerial education and development. For students, often bewildered by the variety of programmes on offer, it provides a reliable list of programmes of tested quality. For the institutions offering accredited programmes it gives an overview of their position against norms which have gained widespread acceptance on an international basis.

Graduates feel reassured that the standing of his or her qualification will retain its position of eminence at a time when the MBA market risks saturation. And for the employer, the Association’s list of accredited MBA programmes provides a touchstone of quality for those seeking to recruit high-calibre staff.

Salient criteria So what factors determine a successful accreditation?

Here are the first three: i) The institution shall have a clear sense of mission,

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a well identified target population and a developed sense of the market for its products, including a means of regular access to employer opinion. In short, the institution should have its own discrete identity. ii) The faculty should be large enough to fully resource the activities of the school. It should also be credible in terms of their academic qualifications, their ability to teach business at postgraduate level, the quality of their research and the extent of their business contacts and consultancy activities. iii) Evidence will be required to show rigour in standards for admission, which must include work experience as well as academic criteria. The student body must be large and varied enough to form an intellectually critical mass and emphasis is placed on the value of peer group exposure.

Core skills and specialist facilities Three other features are equally important, and these concern what is taught and the facilities on offer. iv) The curriculum should be generalist in nature and must cover the core business skills. The total number of contact hours is expected to be no fewer than 500.

The MBA shall be of at least one year’s duration where taken full-time, and two years where taken part-time. v) All elements of a course should be formally assessed, by means appropriate to the subject involved.

Examinations must be the principal (though not necessarily the sole) method of assessment and a dissertation will also be sought as evidence of an ability to integrate the individual core items of the curriculum. vi) In addition, accreditation is based on such factors as the availability of language teaching, library and computer facilities and international contacts. Also important is the extent to which students’ reactions are taken into account in the continuing process of course design and improvement.

Honest self-assessment The Association’s accreditation process has been developed in light of the experience gained over the years. If a reasonable consistency of outlook has been established after an initial discussion, the school will be asked to complete a self-audit document. This is considered by an accreditation panel – comprised of senior representatives from the best business schools worldwide – prior to an on-site visit.

The composition of the panel is crucial to the public standing of the whole process – it must be wellinformed both in academic and in commercial matters,

Dr Robert Owen

fully independent, and have no financial or other interest in the outcome of the accreditation under discussion.

Rewarding good strategies Following a full day’s visit, a report is subsequently prepared for the IAAB (International Accreditation Advisory Board), which will decide on accreditation, nonaccreditation, or accreditation subject to qualification.

Re-accreditation takes place on a five-year basis or within a shorter time period when accreditation has been granted subject to an earlier review date. In cases where accreditation has not been awarded, the business school usually finds the process valuable and worthwhile with regard to its strategy for future development.

The demand for the Association’s accreditation service is truly international, as both students and employers worldwide recognise the need for an unbiased arbiter. In management education, as in management itself, quality is the key to long-term success. I Dr Robert Owen, Director, Accreditation and Business School Services

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Rating the rankings As competition between business schools grows ever fiercer, newspaper ranking systems become more pivotal - and deserve scrutiny themselves, says London Business School.

B

usiness school rankings serve a number of purposes for a number of stakeholders. They can help prospective business students decide where to study. They can provide business schools with feedback on performance and create an opportunity to compare themselves against their key competitors.

And for newspapers and magazines, they mean more sales and advertising.

And with the Financial Times, The Economist, Business Week, Forbes and Wall Street Journal, all producing their own interpretations so compiling them is a big job.

Although the methodology and weighting varies between publications, most rankings include statistical information across a range of fields. Statistics on students and academics are broken down by gender and nationality.

Graduate starting salaries, employment rates and GMAT scores – from Graduate Management Admission Test, commonly used by business schools for incoming students – are scrutinised, as are the research papers published by academics. Recruiters and all importantly business school’s alumni are both asked for their views.

With so many components, there is great scope for business schools to move up and down the rankings and this adds an element of unpredictability. For example the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA)

How the FT rankings are compiled: Schools are required to: • have run a full-time MBA for four years • graduated their first class at least three years ago • classes must have 30 or more students • as far as European or US schools are concerned, they must be accredited by international bodies such as AACSB International, Equis or the Association of MBAs Three main areas are analysed: • Alumni salaries and career development • The diversity and international reach of the school and its MBA

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entered the Financial Times MBA rankings in 11th place this year.

No two rankings are the same and no single ranking should be viewed as the definitive version. Critics commonly query their academic rigour, allege bias and say they possess methodologies mired in secrecy and subject to the publishing whims of editors. Indeed, they are not perfect for measuring the true standing of a business school. But they do have uses, such as providing standardised information which might not otherwise be available and being a useful marketing and planning tool for business schools.

Graham Jennings is Surveys and Rankings Manager at London Business School. He is responsible for compiling the statistical returns for the School and analysing the results..

“Rankings should come with a health warning and they should not be used as the sole tool for judging a business school,” explains Graham Jennings. “We would advise any prospective business school students to visit the institution before they commit to applying.

There’s no substitute for talking to current students and staff and deciding whether you’re a good fit for the business school and, more importantly, whether the business school is the best fit for you.” I

• The research capabilities of each school 20 criteria are used to determine the ranking: • 8 are based on data from alumni questionnaires, including “Weighted salary”, “Placement success rank”, “Alumni recommend rank” and “International mobility rank” • 11 are based on data from schools, including “Employed at three months”, “Women faculty”, “International board” and “International experience rank” • The final criterion evaluates the number of papers written by faculty in 45 academic and practitioner journals over the past three years

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3 yr average rank

Value for money rank

Career progression rank

Aims achievement rank

Placement success rank

Alumni recommend rank

Women faculty (%)

Women students (%)

Women board (%)

International faculty (%)

International students (%)

International board(%)

International mobility rank

International experience rank

Languages

Faculty with doctorate

FT doctoral rank

FT research rank

1

1

London Business School

U.K.

2010

146,332

145,776

132

57

11

2

41

91

4

24

28

16

85

92

60

2

11

1

98

23

7

2

1

1

University of Pennsylvania: Wharton

U.S.A.

2008

175,153

171,551

123

89

33

32

11

84

2

19

40

8

37

34

66

43

33

0

100

2

2

3

3

3

3

Harvard Business School

U.S.A.

2008

170,817

170,238

116

87

22

51

32

90

1

22

36

48

37

34

21

52

59

0

92

14

1

4

5

5

5

Insead

France / Singapore

2009

147,974

147,883

108

4

18

14

44

82

7

14

33

17

90

92

80

8

5

2

97

17

10

4

4

6

5

Stanford University GSB

U.S.A.

2010

182,746

183,260

115

98

9

17

20

92

3

19

39

17

38

41

25

56

15

0

92

4

8

6

9

16

10

Hong Kong UST Business School

China

2011

133,334

133,334

142

16

36

31

52

69

50

25

34

39

88

93

94

19

9

1

100

19

14

7

6

4

6

Columbia Business School

U.S.A.

2009

167,366

163,407

117

97

17

28

23

90

6

18

35

10

62

46

35

49

57

0

97

7

10

8

6

6

7

IE Business School

Spain

2009

142,894

149,584

136

28

4

82

49

91

29

33

29

23

54

87

82

31

34

1

93

69

62

9

11

12

11

Iese Business School

Spain

2009

133,338

131,890

138

65

3

8

25

94

17

18

24

28

49

80

90

3

4

1

100

48

70

9

8

9

9

MIT Sloan School of Management

U.S.A.

2009

158,353

158,387

121

88

10

54

16

89

8

22

35

13

32

51

60

51

25

0

100

11

19

Employed at three months (%)

International students (%)

Weighted Salary (US$)

Salary today

Audit year[1]

Country

Employed at 3 months (%0

Rank in 2009

1

1

Salary percentage increase

Rank in 2010

1

School name

Current rank

FT Global MBA Rankings 2011

6

7

6

5

7

5

6

7

4

4

5

8

-

-

9

-

-

5

82

6

97

33

49

36

66

70

43

3

1

2

91

17,400

18

675

No

100

Masters in International Management

60,342

60,210

4

40

83

30

99

35

48

26

99

92

94

5

4

2

80

9,806

12

791

No

100

Master of Science in Management

75,224

75,229

27

15

82

8

81

28

45

7

58

25

41

10

10

2

99

23,800

18

557

No

100

Master in Strategy and International Management

80,800

80,800

1

46

91

3

96

13

27

18

61

75

9

7

12

2

65

SFr 3510

18

79

Yes

54,840

54,783

48

12

79

32

98

27

59

11

51

53

89

15

2

2

99

15,800

24

657

No

100

60,414

60,414

9

10

84

56

93

33

43

47

38

87

40

2

5

1

76

13,900

12

314

No

96

70,231

70,231

18

53

83

38

90

33

51

43

73

100

21

4

64

0

96

19,224

12

51

No

0

See note [1]

France

Universit채t St.Gallen

Switzerland

EM Lyon Business School

France

Grenoble Graduate School of Business

France

London School of Economics and Political Science

U.K.

Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA)

India

-

-

Essec Business School

France

MSc in Management Master in International Business MSc in Management and Strategy

Course fee (local currency)

29

Master in Management

Weighted salary (US$) 65,900

France, U.K., Germany, Spain, Italy

Salary today (US$) [2] 66,591

Programme name

Company internships (%)

5

Relevant degree

-

Number enrolled 2009/10

-

Course length (months)

-

Faculty with doctorates (%)

4

HEC Paris

Languages

2

International course experience rank

1

International mobility rank

2

International board (%)

3

Cems

International faculty (%)

2

Women board (%)

3

Women students (%)

1

Women faculty (%)

2

Placement success rank

2

Aims achieved (%)

2

Careers rank

3

Value for money rank

ESCP Europe 1

Country

School name

Current rank Ranking in 2009[1] Rank in 2008[1] Average of rank over 3 years[1]

FT Masters in Management 2010

47

Post Graduate Programme in Management

92,693

92,693

10

28

88

2

100

13

15

17

0

1

0

43

43

0

97

n / a++

22

310

No

100

MSc in Management

63,332

62,733

49

22

83

7

89

26

48

8

43

26

58

12

20

2

92

22,000

18

572

No

100

1. The Cems programme was taught in 17 different countries in 2007.

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Case studies of business using education to raise standards

A new partnership between Employers and Educators There is always a place for good talent to thrive, says Julie Mercer of Deloitte, as long as firms and job-seekers make the effort to learn more about each other.

W

ith university fees set to increase in 2012 and the continued uncertainty of the economic outlook, many students are questioning whether university is the right choice for them, and thinking more about their options. If fewer school leavers are choosing to go to university, what is the impact on employers and how can employers address this?

Investing in future generations is a responsibility employers share. We need to find better ways of providing students with the guidance they need to help them make informed choices. Recent research

by Deloitte for the Education Employers Taskforce confirmed the lack of visibility of employers and good information about career options in many schools.

Coupled with a real need to diversify the pool within which businesses fish for talented young employees, employers must start to engage differently with schools and with young people.

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The opportunities that Deloitte UK has for talented students

In light of recent developments, many businesses are doing just that. At Deloitte, for example, our Bright Start school leaver programme, offers new paths to entry and qualification, in addition to the traditional graduate route.

We all need to try harder – employers must better inform students on the different ways they can join their business, and not assume that this will be familiar to schools, colleges and young people – even a large firm like Deloitte is a mystery to those outside the industry or beyond our client base.

But what can students do? Students must work just as hard to educate themselves about employers. There

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are many ways to do this – for example at university, they can visit career fairs, and attend skills sessions and talks sponsored by employers. At school, be ambitious about work placements and involve businesses in the curriculum. Meeting existing employees is also an excellent way to get to understand the culture of an organisation. The increasing cost of a university education means that young people want to feel that the investment they make – financially, in time and emotionally, makes sense. The student must firstly question whether what they want to do requires a degree or whether their time is better spent starting a career straight after school.

Recent headlines report a decline in graduate employment which has deterred students from applying for jobs. Our advice is that there is always a place for good talent, and Deloitte UK alone has over 1,100 opportunities for young people to support this talent. Students should continue to be optimistic and commit to networking and researching.

As important as technical capability are the ‘soft skills’ that can be used within the workplace. Examples of ‘soft skills’ are working as a part of a team, being able to talk and communicate with others, managing and motivating teams, and being able to interact with people outside of your direct team. Gaining work experience or simply being a member of a club at school or university can all help to develop these skills before they are needed at an employment level.

If you would like to know more about our work on careers advice and guidance, the Bright Start programme or would be interested in finding out more about Deloitte please visit www.deloitte.co.uk or contact Julie Mercer at julieemercer@deloitte.co.uk I Julie Mercer is a partner in Deloitte’s consulting practice and leads their education services practice.

focus

Renault puts graduates in the driving seat People-centric organisations strive continuously to attract, develop and retain a talented and motivated workforce. No organisation is better equipped to demonstrate this than Renault UK, as Siân Vernon, Human Resources Director shows.

R

enault’s Graduate Development Programme has been a key part of its workforce planning strategy for many years and is designed to ensure a constant flow of new, energetic, high-potential individuals into the organisation. The programme provides the incoming graduates with a broad range of experience over the course of twelve months, equipping them for future management positions. On average, Renault recruits four business-oriented graduates per year and specifically seek those who are mobile, have an international perspective and can already offer some relevant work experience.

To attract the best, Renault ensures its remuneration package is competitive and advertises across the top 20 universities both in the UK and France as well as via the Renault UK website and other social media (facebook/twitter).

The recruitment activity commences in September

In the driving seat with Renault

each year and the process consists of on-line application, internal screening, telephone interview, psychometric testing and an intensive one-day assessment centre where graduates undertake a series of commercial exercises. This provides an insight into the Renault world as well as the opportunity to see how they might perform in real-life business situations. It is not for the faint-hearted and sets very high standards but is extremely robust and ensures that Renault recruits only high calibre candidates. The assessor team consists of Renault’s own HR specialists, along with a broad selection of experienced Renault UK managers, trained in assessment techniques, who understand fully the needs of the business.

The 12-month training period ensures newcomers are fully integrated into the organisation, not only from a UK Head Office point of view but also at the sharp end, with practical hands-on experience through work placement within Renault Retail Group. They each have an individual training plan, specifically designed for them. On completion of the training period, they assume their first real role with real challenges and real accountability.

The benefits to Renault UK of this programme are enormous.

Renault recruits for the long term to ensure that they have a healthy stream of extremely competent and loyal graduates moving through their organisation and many of their former graduate trainees now hold key management positions both here in the UK and elsewhere within the Group. I

info - april / may 2011 - 57

focus

Waste not, want not! Veolia builds links to British universities The resources available in British universities to deepen and extend a company’s knowledge base and recruiting potential, are well understood by Veolia Environmental Services (UK) plc, which is committed to the principle of the knowledge-based company.

A

s the science of environment gets more complex and the technology more elaborate and sophisticated, companies need to go outside their own four walls to keep up to speed with latest developments. This explains the considerable links Veolia has built up with British universities and colleges.

Richard Berry, one of its directors, points to its links with top UK universities like Imperial College London, Sheffield and Warwick. He notes that ‘Selected students work on a project with us (often spending significant time on our premises, a bit like an internship). Subjects are selected between us and the university. This gives us access to current university thought, and the students get the benefit of real life problems, and real life data.’ The company also sponsors a number of employees doing business courses at various universities, and is working closely with Imperial on the development of an executive MSc in Sustainable Business. The links developed in the course of the research have encouraged some top students in the field to pursue their careers at Veolia.

This gives students the ideal opportunity to spend their career in companies driving sustainable value in the market, and gain operational experience rather than move straight to a consultancy.

The company uses British colleges like South Staffordshire College and Northampton Veolia is working University, where environment closely with is a key part of the syllabus, to Imperial on the provide more vocational and development of targeted courses for its managers. an executive MSc While a number of Veolia in Sustainable managers have benefited from Business MBAs at Leeds University, the company wants to know that

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Richard Berry • Director at Veolia Environmental Services

the MBA is relevant and necessary to an individual’s task and prospects. Mr Berry says, ‘We are likely to continue to support some employees on such programmes.

However an MBA is not necessarily the most suitable, or the most efficient, solution for all.’ Instead the company says it likes to combine training into larger programmes which bring together classroom, self learning, networking and business development.

One further pillar of the educational platform is provided by its own Veolia Campus, at Staines, in the UK. Staffed by ten full-time teachers, this provided over 10,800 training days to 8,800 Veolia Environmental Services’ staff in 2010 (up 14% and 47% respectively on 2009). Mr Berry says that the company has done a lot of work on behavioural approaches, but is now emphasising leadership at all levels. ‘We want to improve employee engagement, as we believe it is key to driving a sustainable business.’ Efforts to raise the level of general workforce and vocational skills has produced 1200 people taking NVQs in 2010 and 129 apprentices in the company in 2009/10. I

focus

Delivering Britain’s critical energy skills Britain’s future economic success depends critically on power generation, yet a worrying dearth of skills threatens provision. Happily, says Alstom, a plethora of centres now offer the dedicated training needed to close the current skills gap

T

he UK Government has highlighted the engineering construction and low carbon, power generation industries as key to the country’s economic future. Now is the time to significantly invest in skills to develop these industries’ future workforces, given their current mix of an ageing workforce and ageing plant, with new technology and new roles.

One engineering company that has taken a leading role in promoting skills development within the energy industry is Alstom. A founding member of the National Skills Academy for Power, Alstom now boasts five world-class technical training facilities, specialising in welding, lifting and rigging, steam turbine, generator and electricity transmission technologies for the sector.

National training expertise Three of Alstom’s training centres can be found in Stafford in the North Midlands. The town is also the headquarters of Alstom’s newly acquired Grid business which employs 1,400 people across two sites in the town and is a key location for 400 of Alstom Power’s sector employees.

The Alstom Grid Technical Institute provides training related to electricity transmission on subjects ranging from safety, design, operations and maintenance, to protection, electricity substation control and network management. The Grid site specialises in high voltage systems and power electronics, and thus also provides technical and engineering support to the UK’s electricity transmission network.

Expert trainers deliver a large range of hands-on and/or theoretical courses held both in-house at Alstom Grid’s Stafford site, and at sites of external organisations who seek training support.

Gaining hands-on experience Both Government and industry skills organisations have identified welding skills in particular as being in very short supply. Welding is essential to develop the power stations of the future, so to meet this demand Alstom opened its own world-class, dedicated welding facility in Stafford in 2009. This centre, one of only a handful in the country, can deliver as many as 9,000 training days a year and train and ‘up-skill’ up to 275 welders annually.

At another of its Stafford sites, Alstom provides a broad range of technology-specific training aimed at developing competencies for power station generator service in the UK. The purpose-built generator engineering centre provides rare hands-on experience for new and experienced engineers and technicians alike. Here trainees get to use power generation equipment which was retired from active service at Hinckley Point A nuclear power station in 2007. Alstom also runs a complementary turbine training facility from its Rugby site in Warwickshire.

One fifth of Alstom’s UK training centres focus on the safe lifting and rigging of heavy equipment typically used on engineering construction sites. The training team works closely with Alstom employees and those from other organisations in the safe planning and operation of heavy lifting and rigging techniques.

The power sector is critical to the UK economy.

Both the government and the UK power industry agree that the industry is facing a number of increasingly critical skills issues which, if not addressed, could have a dramatic impact on the government’s energy agenda. Luckily the growth of dedicated training centres as described above should offer a way out of this conundrum. I

info - april / may 2011 - 59

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ex hibit ions

© Joan Miró Head of a Catalan Peasant 1925 Tate © Succession Miro / ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2008

Miró 14 April – 11 September 2011 / Tate Modern / Tickets £15.50 ||| Joan Miró’s work comes to London in the first major retrospective here for nearly 50 years. Renowned as one of the greatest Surrealist painters, filling his paintings with luxuriant colour, Miró worked in a rich variety of styles. This is a rare opportunity to enjoy more than 150 paintings, drawings, sculptures and prints from moments across the six decades of his extraordinary career.

Miró is among the most iconic of modern artists, using a language of symbols that reflects his personal vision, sense of freedom, and energy. The exhibition includes many of the key works that we know and love. It also shows that, behind the engaging innocence of his imagery, lies a profound concern for humanity and a sense of personal and national identity. Extraordinary works from different moments of his career celebrate his roots in his native Catalonia.

This is a must-see exhibition for 2011, filled with astonishing, beautiful and striking paintings by one of the greats of modern art. I

info - april / may 2011 - 61

a ge n da

What’s on?

The Children’s Hour ||| When a schoolgirl’s whisper spreads, it triggers a chain of events with extraordinary consequences. Karen Wright (Keira Knightley) and Martha Dobie (Elisabeth Moss) run a girls’ boarding school in 1930s New England, where they become entangled in a devastating story of deceit, shame and courage. Banned in London and several cities across America, The Children’s Hour received its world premiere on Broadway in 1934.

Generations on, its potent exploration of a culture of fear remains startlingly relevant.

Fresh from the theatrical triumph of Jerusalem, Ian Rickson directs an outstanding cast. Keira Knightley returns to the London stage alongside Elisabeth Moss, Golden Globe nominee for TV’s critically acclaimed Mad Men in her West End debut. One of the finest actors of our generation, Ellen Burstyn, 6-time Oscar nominee and winner for Best Actress (Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore), will also make her London debut.

Joining this acclaimed cast is stage and screen star Carol Kane (Taxi) and Tobias Menzies (BBC’s Rome). I Until 30 April 2011 / Comedy Theatre

French Passions ||| Every month at the Institut français, between January and June 2011, a British writer is coming to talk about his favourite French author.

Don’t miss the forthcoming series: • In April, Edmund de Waal on Proust.

• In May, Kate Mosse on Maupassant.

• In June, Tom McCarthy on Robbe-Grillet.

Boyd Tonkin, literary editor of The Independent will chair the series. I In English / Early reservation recommended

Esprit et Vérité: Watteau and His Circle

© Antoine Watteau (1684 – 1721) Fêtes Vénitiennes, c.1717/9. Oil on canvas, 55.9 x 45.7 cm. Edinburgh, National Gallery of Scotland

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||| In two exhibitions of great paintings, the Wallace Collection celebrates Antoine Watteau, the artist who died in his prime yet changed the course of French painting, and Jean de Jullienne, his publisher and one of France’s greatest collectors; a perfect accompaniment to the exhibition of Watteau drawings at London’s Royal Academy of Arts.

The exhibitions will consist of a redisplay of the great Watteau canvasses in the Wallace Collection, in the intimate setting of the West Gallery at Hertford House; and downstairs, in the Collection’s Exhibition Galleries, significant masterworks of the 17th and 18th centuries by artists, including Rembrandt, Rubens, Greuze and Vernet, drawn from the collection of Watteau’s publisher and most important dealer, Jean de Jullienne.

(This exhibition complements Watteau’s Drawings: Virtuosity and Delight at the Royal Academy of Arts, 12 March – 5 June 2011.) I 12 March – 5 June 2011 / Admission Free

a ge n da

What’s on?

Wim Crouwel – A Graphic Odyssey

© Bazaine, Poster, 1958. Stedelijk Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven.

||| The Design Museum celebrates the prolific career of the Dutch graphic designer Wim Crouwel in this, his first UK retrospective. Regarded as one of the leading designers of the twentieth century, Crouwel embraced a new modernity to produce typographic designs that captured the essence of the emerging computer and space age of the early 1960s.

Spanning over 60 years, this exhibition will cover Crouwel’s rigorous design approach and key moments in his career including his work for design practice ‘Total Design’, the identity for the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, as well as his iconic poster, print, typography and lesser known exhibition design. The exhibition will also explore Crouwel’s innovative use of grid-based layouts and typographic systems to produce consistently striking asymmetric visuals. I 30 March – 03 July 2011 / Design Museum / Admission charge

Afghanistan: Crossroads of the Ancient World ||| Afghanistan: Crossroads of the Ancient World will highlight some of the most important archaeological discoveries from ancient Afghanistan and will display precious and unique pieces on loan from the National Museum of Afghanistan in Kabul currently undergoing reconstruction. The geographical position, overland connections and history ensured that it was a region which enjoyed close relations with its neighbours in Central Asia, Iran, India and China, as well as more distant cultures stretching as far as the Mediterranean.

The exhibition will showcase over 200 stunning objects belonging to the National Museum of Afghanistan, accompanied by selected items from the British Museum. © Crown (Tillya Tepe, Tomb VI), 1st century Their survival is due to a handful of Afghan officials who deliberately concealed them BC-1st century AD gold and imitation turquoise, National Museum of Afghanistan. and they are now exhibited here in a travelling exhibition designed to highlight to Copyright Thierry Ollivier / Musee Guimet the international community the importance of the cultural heritage of Afghanistan and the remarkable achievements and trading connections of these past civilisations. I 3 March – 3 July 2011 / British Museum / Admission charge

The Cult of Beauty: The Aesthetic Movement 1860-1900 ||| This is the first major exhibition to comprehensively explore Aestheticism, an extraordinary artistic movement which sought to escape the ugliness and materialism of the Victorian era by creating a new kind of art and beauty.

Featuring superb artworks from the traditional high art of painting, to fashionable trends in architecture, interior design, domestic furnishings, art photography and new modes of dress, this exhibition traces Aestheticism’s evolution from the artistic concerns of a small circle of avant-garde artists and authors to a broad cultural phenomenon. I 2 April - 17 July 2011 / Victoria & Albert Museum / Admission charge ‘The Cult of Beauty’: ‘Pavonia’, Frederic, Lord Leighton, 1858-59 © Private Collection c/o Christie’s

info - april / may 2011 - 63

A very British Film Awards Season This year Awards Season has been highlighted by the reign of the British success The King’s

© John Steven Fernandez at http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevenfernandez/

The BAFTA’s took place on 13 February

© flickr/Sharon Graphics

||| On 13 February, the Orange British Academy Film Awards, held at London’s Royal Opera House, royally rewarded The King’s Speech. The film was crowned Best Film and also won six other awards: Outstanding British Film, Original Screenplay and Original Music, as well as a trio of performance awards for Geoffrey Rush, Helena Bonham Carter and Colin Firth, who wins the Leading Actor BAFTA for the second year running.

Natalie Portman was awarded the BAFTA for Leading Actress for her performance as Nina Sayers in Black Swan.

The Social Network and Inception win three BAFTAs each. Alice in Wonderland takes home two awards: the BAFTAs for Costume Design and Make Up & Hair.

On 27 February, The Oscars crowned The King’s Speech best picture of the year at the 83rd Academy Awards. The film also picked up four of the key awards of the evening from its 12 nominations. I

© flick/Toastwife

Speech. Focus on the February Awards

Colin Firth and wife Livia Giuggioli in January 2011

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Natalie Portman won a BAFTA for Black Swan

bo ok r e v i e w s

Kiki De Montparnasse: The Graphic Biography

by Catel & Bocquet, translated by Nora Mahony ||| Winner of Angouleme Festival’s Essential Prix & RTL Grand Prix.

In the bohemian and brilliant Montparnasse of the 1920s, Kiki escaped poverty to become one of the most charismatic figures of the avant-garde years between the wars. Partner to Man Ray, she would be immortalised by many artists. The muse of a generation, she was one of the first emancipated women of the 20th century. I

Monsieur Linh and his Child

by Philippe Claudel, translated by Euan Cameron ||| Traumatized by memories of his war-ravaged country, and with his son and daughter-in-law dead, Monsieur Linh travels to a foreign land to bring the child in his arms to safety. The other refugees in the detention centre are unsure how to help the old man; his caseworkers are compassionate, but overworked. Monsieur Linh struggles beneath the weight of his sorrow, and becomes increasingly bewildered and isolated in this strange, fast-moving town. And then he encounters Monsieur Bark. Neither speaks the other’s language, but Monsieur Bark is sympathetic to the foreigner’s need to care for the child. Recently widowed and equally alone, he is eager to talk, and Monsieur Linh knows how to listen. The two men share their solitude, and find friendship in an unlikely dialogue between two very different cultures.

Delicate and restrained, but with an extraordinary twist, Monsieur Linh and His Child is another limpid, immensely moving novel of perfect simplicity, by the author of Brodeck’s Report. I

An Uncertain Place

by Fred Vargas translated by Sian Reynolds ||| Commissaire Adamsberg leaves Paris for a three-day conference in London. Accompanying him are Estalere, a young sergeant, and Commandant Danglard, who is terrified at the idea of travelling beneath the Channel. It is a welcome change of scenery, until a macabre and brutal case comes to the attention of their colleague Radstock from New Scotland Yard.

Just outside the gates of the baroque Highgate Cemetery a pile of shoes is found. Not so strange in itself, but the shoes contain severed feet. As Scotland Yard’s investigation begins, Adamsberg and his colleagues return home and are confronted with a massacre in a suburban home. Adamsberg and Danglard are drawn in to a trail of vampires and vampire-hunters that leads them all the way to Serbia, a place where the old certainties no longer apply.

In Fred Vargas’s riveting new novel, Adamsberg finds himself in the line of fire as never before. I

A Palace in the Old Village

by Tahar Ben Jelloun translated by Linda Coverdale ||| Mohammed has spent the past forty years working in France.

As he approaches retirement, he takes stock of his life - his devotion to Islam and to his assimilated children - and decides to return to Morocco, where he spends his life’s savings building the biggest house in the village and waiting for his children and grandchildren to come be with him.

A heartbreaking novel about parents and children, A Palace in the Old Village captures the sometimes stark contrast between old - and new-world values, and an immigrant’s abiding pursuit of home. I

These books, written in french and recently translated into english, were selected by the French Institute

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w i n e p r ess

Loving wine… naturally!

Thibault Lavergne, our wine expert, discovers the sources of passion for Isabelle Legeron, the most qualified French woman amongst British professional wine instructors.

B

orn and brought up on a vineyard in Charente in the southwest of France, Isabelle Legeron comes from the sixth generation of a Cognac producing family.

She is the only French woman ever to have become a Master of Wine “MW”. Other accolades include the Villa Maria Award for Viticulture, the Madame Bollinger Award for Excellence in Tasting, and Wine Woman of the Year 2009 at a biennial, international competition in Paris.

On this side of the water, Time Out recommends a wine tasting with Isabelle as one of their top ‘1,000 things to do in London’. Now viewers in 117 countries can enjoy her fourth series of ‘Journey into Wine‘, broadcast on Travel Channel and CNBC, which sees her explore vineyards from South Africa and Australia to Spain, Portugal, and now central and eastern Europe.

Isabelle, what is the Institute of Masters of Wine? What does it do?

The IMW was created some 50 years ago and surprisingly enough, it is originally a British creation. The MW is considered to be the most demanding wine course in

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the trade. It trains highly qualified wine professionals and imparts a great understanding of the industry covering viticulture, the business of wine and an indepth knowledge of most international styles.

How did you become a MW and why did you want to become one?

I became an MW in November 2009. When I started I did not know any Masters of Wine. I did it simply because I wanted to further my wine knowledge.

How does it feel being the third French person and the only French woman to become a MW?

I feel very proud. I had never worked so hard for any qualification. It brought me an amazing sense of achievement and it has really helped me cement my reputation.

Why didn’t you choose a French exam such as the DNO (Diplôme national d’oenologie)?

I started my wine career late in life, as a second career if you like. I had already done a Maîtrise and DESS and was working in London in publishing. I decided to go back to my roots because I had been brought up on a vineyard. So I knew about viticulture but next to nothing about tasting wine. As I was based in London at the time, the WSET (Wine and Spirit Education Trust) was my first port of call. Everything I now know about wine I have learnt in the UK - and of course by tasting thousands of wines and visiting hundreds of vineyards.

What made you dedicate yourself to specialising in natural wines?

For me, discovering natural wines was like falling in love with wine all over again. I was tired of technically sound but aromatically boring wines, which tend to

w i n e p r e ss

taste too much the same. Natural wines are the closest thing you will get to 100% fermented grape juice. These wines are exciting and full of personality. They are also organic and lack most additives. My new website, www.thatcrazyfrenchwoman.com, is all about bringing transparency to the wine world and changing the way we drink wine. And the first episode of my my new series focuses on Georgia (ex-USSR) where wine may have been created some 8,000 years ago. What could be more natural than that?

You created The Natural Wine Fair with five other UK wine importers. Can you tell us more about this fair?

This very exciting event will bring together some 120 growers, mainly from France and Italy. It gives wine lovers an amazing opportunity to taste hundreds of natural wines in one place, London’s Borough market.

This is a first for the UK and we have some very exciting speakers coming from far away. I will be doing a talk myself together with a tasting session on the opening day, Sunday, 15 April. You can find more information at www.thenaturalwinefair.com I Master of Wine • Isabelle Legeron

Thibault Lavergne is the managing director of Wine Story Ltd

Saint-Marcellin by La Cave à Fromage

Your wine for the Saint-Marcellin by Wine Story ||| Is it because Saint-Marcellin - and its close cousin Saint-Félicien - was originally made originally from goat cheese that it goes so well with crisp dry white wine. A Sauvignon de Touraine, a Beaujolais Blanc or a mineral and fruity Chenin Blanc from Domaine La Grange Tiphaine in TouraineAmboise would be perfect. Or, alternatively, why not accompany it with the more local Roussette de Savoie from aromatic Altesse grapes? I

© wikipedia/Jimmy O’Kelly

||| What a grand name for such a tiny cheese! Yet size isn’t everything, and Saint-Marcellin fully deserves its illustrious reputation. Plus it comes with a history few can match.

Originating in the village of Saint-Marcellin in the splendid Vercors district near Grenoble, the cheese acquired noble status in the 15th century after two lumberjacks saved the future king Louis XI from being mauled by a bear during a hunting party. The woodsmen shared their lunch of Saint-Marcellin and bread with the royal, who so loved the cheese that he brought it back to his royal table.

Saint-Marcellin was made of goat milk until the mid-18th century when farmers switched to more plentiful cows’ milk. When young, after Saint-Marcellin ten to twelve days maturing, it offers light aromas and milky to creamy textures; after 20 days ageing it gains a spicy touch and a gentle bitterness. Now the famous Mère Richard of Lyon has rejuvenated Saint-Marcellin. She sells it so runny it needs to be displayed in a clay dish. So go ahead and enjoy – but watch out for those bears… I

Vineyards in Sancerre often plant roses around Sauvignon Blanc vines as an early detector of mildew

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news @ the chamber T

he Chamber likes to emphasise its role as a facilitator of meetings and introductions between business people. Indeed Peter Alfandary, the vice president of the Chamber, has said it is a foremost such forum in London.

But we all know that the most promising encounters happen when the environment is right and conducive to relaxation and mutual comfort.

Two events in particular have occurred recently when such conditions prevailed.

The first was the Patron Dinner at the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel on 1 March extensively covered in this section. But it is enough to say that it was a triumph in many ways: for the Chamber, which organised such a ‘preview’ of a remarkable building and was truly delighted to be able to offer this to its Patron members; for the Patrons, who clearly relished the cuisine and company and for our events department, delivering such facilities in such style. A triumph all round!

The second was the Luxury Club ‘Dîner des Chefs’ 2nd edition which took place at Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons on 7 March. The loyalty of Raymond Blanc to the Chamber is impressive and greatly appreciated. We celebrate the master Chef’s growing media recognition. His growing status is cheered by the Chamber. He likewise, does not fail to reciprocate the warmth of the relationship, as he did once again this time. Such was members’ enthusiasm for the event that it was sold out and Raymond Blanc agreed to have a ‘repeat’ on 28 March.

The Chamber was honoured to provide a forum for Stephen Burgin, the UK country President of Alstom to demonstrate his authority in the field of power engineering at a CEO breakfast on 17 of February, which was hosted at the Andaz Hotel. His discussion of the UK’s power and energy needs over the next 15 years was stimulating, and very interesting.

The complexity of financial planning can be challenging. But John Stone, the Chairman of Lombard International Assurance S.A., made the subject of: “Wealth Planning for French Nationals Living in the UK” very accessible.

The Member-to-Member Cocktail was held on 24 March, with a record attendance. It hosted no less than 22 stands! The M2M offers book featuring no less than 85 special offers to members was distributed to the participants.

We look forward to the launch of our Climate Change Forum chaired

by Richard Brown, Chairman of Eurostar, on 11 April. We will bring together CEOs and climate change experts from many industrial sectors to discuss directions forward in this particularly topical area.

Finally, we would like to welcome Jean-Dominique Mallet, the CEO of Veolia Environnement Services UK, to the Board of the Chamber. I

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news

@

the chamber

The Chamber is very proud to welcome Jean-Dominique Mallet, CEO of Veolia Environmental Services UK to the Board of the Chamber Jean-Dominique was appointed to the position of CEO of Veolia Environmental Services UK in June 2007 which is in addition to his responsibilities as Executive Vice-President for Northern Europe and Australia. He is also a member of the company’s Executive Committee and retains responsibility for the technical and greenhouse gas departments of the company.

Jean-Dominique joined the Veolia Environnement group in 1990. He is highly experienced in the waste management sector having moved to the waste management arm of Veolia Environnement in 1994. Prior to his moving to the UK, Jean-Dominique supervised the company’s activities in Australia, Africa, Middle East and Southern Europe.

2 New Corporate members:

AMI Software www.amisw.com AMI is used by organisations of all sizes to develop strategic intelligence by capitalising fully on the hidden value of online information. Utilising automated “collect & capitalise” processes to capture all the best information all of the time Organisation’s using AMI gain far reaching insight into their operating environments, identify early warning signals, build intelligence driven knowledgebase’s and share good information effectively.

Represented by Mike Alderton, General Manager

Fabergé Services Limited www.faberge.com Fabergé, contemporary master jeweller, with a Russian heritage reaching back to the legendary masterpieces of Peter Carl Fabergé, goldsmith and jeweller to the Imperial Court of Russia, was revitalised in 2009 and reunited with the remaining members of the Fabergé family. The first High Jewellery collection since 1917, Les Fabuleuses de Fabergé, is inspired by the artistic brilliance and richness of Fabergé’s world.

Represented by Joanna Cheres, Finance Manager

12 new Active members: Eurosport Television Ltd

Service Point UK

Represented by Frank Lannoy, Alumni Representative www.audencia.com

Represented by Guillaume Canard-Duchêne, Director www.eurosportcorporate.com

Represented by Jenny Locker, Sales executive www.servicepointuk.com

BIHR SA

Joseph Hammond-Hagan Photography

Executive Search & Consulting

Audencia Business School

Manufacturer

Represented by Patrick Durand Smet, Director www.bihr-sa.com/EN/

BlogSpirit

Media

Photography

Represented by Joseph Hammond-Hagan, Owner www.josephhh.com

Software

Nomos Tax

Represented by Thomas Pichon, Business development www.corporate.blogspirit.com/en

Tax Advisory

Represented by Hynde Hamdani, Director www.nomostax.co.uk

Elan

Prêt à parler languages

Public Relations

Language training

Represented by Jennifer Attias, Director www.agence-elan.com

Represented by Sandy Bowers, Director/founder www.pretaparler.com

Printing

The Ashton Partnership Represented by Séverine Trinh, Partner www.theashtonpartnership.com

The Cadogan Hotel Boutique Hotel

Represented by Ray Geahchan, Senior Sales Manager www.cadogan.com

ViaHumanis

Management of international professional relocation

Represented by Anastasia Hovanessian, Area Manager UK www.via-humanis.com

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news

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the chamber

Recent Events

8th February: Business club cocktail sponsored by

Lombard offers expats tax recipe Once a haven for non-domiciles, Britain changed its taxation laws in 2008 and thereby sowed doubts amongst wealthy French nationals resident in the UK. Yet there are solutions to hand that take full advantage of pan-European opportunities. ||| So said John Stone, Chairman of Lombard International Assurance S.A., at the Chamber’s most recent Business Club Cocktail. The event, sponsored by Lombard (regarded as the leading European cross-border provider of Privatbancassurance solutions), took place on 8 February, at the prestigious and sumptuous Four Seasons Hotel, off London’s Park Lane. Judging from a capacity audience of 120, and the fact that chatting and networking continued well after the official end time of 8pm, the cocktail was quite a success!

John Stone, introduced by CCFGB Managing Director, Florence Gomez, outlined how Lombard’s wealth planning package, based on a model called Privatbancassurance, maximises “our area of cross-border expertise in the panEuropean arena”. It provides tailor-made solutions to suit individual clients and benefits from its headquarters based in Luxembourg, with its reputation for investor protection and status as a founding member of the EU, with the ability to passport into all EU jurisdictions. Stone highlighted its “triangle of security”, as being Europe’s strongest investor protection regime where assets are segregated and “ring-fenced” for the benefit of the client.

Chris Edward, Senior Wealth Planner, followed by describing how the outgoing Labour administration challenged Britain’s 200-year tradition of distinguishing between UK domicile and non-UK domicile with the introduction of a new taxation in 2008. Even the new administration, he asserted, saw “non-domiciles as an easy target”. As evidence he distributed a Telegraph article published that day on rumours that George Osborne would boost taxation on non-doms.

The post-2008 dispensation gives options of paying tax on an arising basis or electing to pay a £30,000 charge (or £60,000 per married couple). This risks losing personal allowances and threatens repatriation of wealth. Another misconception, he said, was that French “assurance vie” automatically works as an effective tax shelter in the UK. He confirmed that what

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John Stone • Chairman of Lombard International Assurance S.A.

is clear is that if you live in the UK, you need to comply with the legislation in the UK and not only France.

Lombard confirmed that it is able to provide a robust and compliant UK solution, as well as ensuring that it is French compliant if the client moves back to France.

Sophie Lhermerout, Sales & Marketing Consultant, then explained the tax advantages of subscribing a life assurance contract before moving to France: exemption from inheritance tax, exemption from the beneficiary tax of 20 % and exemption from wealth tax in France in the 5 years following arrival in France. In terms of asset allocation, she highlighted the great flexibility of the investment rules applicable to a Luxembourg life contract (as defined by the Commissariat aux Assurances, the Luxembourg insurance regulator).

A lively question and answer session followed with queries from investment agencies, legal firms, hotels, notaries and even translation services. Topics included everything from options for cashing in proceeds, forfeits on tax gains, and guidelines to disclosure, to how one might optimise cross-border benefits and where such schemes operate. All this food for thought was followed by more tangible offerings: delicious smoked salmon blinis, foie gras on toast and creamy chocolate desserts – a fitting end to a stimulating evening in five-star surroundings. I L.R.J

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Recent Events

17th February: CEO Breakfast

Alstom’s role in powering up Britain The UK has embarked on a major programme to reform the electricity market. The move is intended to stimulate investment in power generation facilities and fill the up-coming hole in UK energy generation provision. Here Stephen Burgin of Alstom lays out the issues and the solutions. ||| ‘Are Britain’s lights going to go out, or will they just flicker?’ that is the question Stephen Burgin, country president for Alstom UK put to the Chamber members at the CEO breakfast on February 17 at the Andaz Hotel.

He then proceeded to deal with issues involving power production and transmission, now absorbing UK authorities, and power companies, like Alstom.

There are two issues, he said, the first was the security of supply and second, how the producers can deal with climate change and Mr Burgin observed that electricity power generation was the single biggest contributor towards carbon emissions. ‘40% of carbon emissions worldwide are the result of power generation’, he said.

Britain was embarking on a complete shake-up of its power systems, he said. ‘The UK electricity network was planned for a world that didn’t worry about climate change. There were also plentiful supplies of natural gas and other fossil fuels.’ However, Mr Burgin observed that, as we need more ‘green’ energy to comply with international emissions standards, we also need more energy in absolute terms, as consumption grows.

In discussing the UK’s nuclear programme, he observed how the UK was once a leader in nuclear technology. But ‘we fell out of love with nuclear’. France didn’t go that route and is now in a very strong position to help the UK manage its challenges for the provision of power generation. ‘Burgin spoke very highly of the Areva power station model and also the important role of EDF in the UK. The UK also needs to give considerable attention to using electricity from renewable sources. ‘As we use more distributed generation, the (electricity) grid needs to be redesigned, to take electricity from two directions.

This is a complex and changing landscape.’ The UK has embarked on a process of closing down some 30% of its coal-fired power stations ‘either because the plant is old, or because the level of emissions is unacceptable’. Britain is also closing its fleet of first generation nuclear plants, with the exception of Sizewell. This will create a gap in

Arnaud de Saint-Exupéry, General Manager of Andaz Hotel • Florence Gomez • Stephen Burgin

its power provision which may partly be filled by gas, but Mr Burgin warns that the UK cannot become dependent on gas, because of the risk of political instability in gasproducing regions such as the Middle East and Russia.

To fill this gap, the UK has announced a £200 billion programme of investment to meet UK needs for power generation and infrastructure. Mr Burgin says the private sector is expected to provide the investment, ‘so the government has to make this market more attractive.’

The UK Government has launched the consultation Electricity Market Report (EMR). He says, ‘this is the most dramatic change in the UK electricity sector since privatisation.’ He lays out the four proposed levers outlined in the EMR to create investment: 1. The setting of a carbon floor price, primarily driving investment in nuclear 2. Laying out the terms for contracts for differences, guaranteeing returns on investment 3. Providing emissions performance standards 4. Providing power generators with capacity payments, to supply generation as a backup if other forms of energy do not or are unable to deliver.

If this is implemented satisfactorily, Mr Burgin says the lights in the UK may ‘flicker’, but they will not go out. The appreciative audience breathed a collective sigh of relief. I

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Recent Events

1st March: Patron gastronomic dinner sponsored by

A glimpse of history at refurbished St Pancras Renaissance Hotel This London landmark has been restored to its former glory. Patrons were treated to an itinerant dinner, in truly sumptuous surroundings.

||| The visit of the Patron members to the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel on 1 March 2011, will go down in the annals of the Chamber as one of its most remarkable events. Not a single visitor could fail to be moved by the many stories they heard about the building, by the remarkable building itself and the way it has been restored, and by the style and seriousness of its service.

Those guests who came enjoyed an opportunity for extensive and high-level networking. This was a well-organised and impressive event, courtesy of the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel, for many senior executives and their wives. It showed the Chamber at its best, and,

Florence Gomez, MD of the Chamber • Peter Alfandary, Deputy President of the Chamber • Chef Julien Maisonneuve • Kevin Kelly, General Manager, St Pancras Renaissance Hotel

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as Kevin Kelly, General Manager of the hotel said, ‘the French Chamber is one of the highest level networking forum in London.’ This avant premiere was held two weeks before the official opening, and was in fact the first celebration hosted at this historic location in nearly 80 years. ‘Those attending should feel very privileged’ added a guest.

In the course of the presentation, two dates stand out. The first is 1873, the year the original hotel opened, dominating this skyline and area of North London. The second is 1935, the last time (until now) the Hotel was used to host guests, serve hot and excellent food and entertain the fortunate citizens of London. Since then, this remarkable building in its ‘Gothic revival’ style, had indeed been a ‘derelict sensation’, as the local media described it.

Certainly nothing had been done to bring out the true magnificence of its architecture and decor. Now, under the guidance of the Manhattan Loft Corporation, this has been achieved. The designs on the walls and ceilings have been lovingly and immaculately restored, the carpets replaced to the highest quality. Most importantly, the work has been done with an eye on history, and not to exploit or elaborate the architecture. The result is something more akin to a palace, with massive marble pillars, grave and stately arches, shining chandeliers and glittering, but discrete murals. A building that once was

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Some of the fantastic staff of the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel with Chef Julien Maisonneuve, Florence Gomez, Royden Stock, Peter Alfandary, Kevin Kelly, General Manager of St Pancras Renaissance Hotel and Ed White

part of a railway station (created by Midland Railways to rival and outshine the Kings Cross Station down the road) has come to life for London’s and the world’s wealthier and fortunate travellers.

But for one night it was the property, the spectacle of the Chamber and its patrons. Peter Alfandary, the Chamber’s deputy president welcomed guests with a paeon of praise for the building, for its owners and managers, and for the wonders of hotel life, ‘people come and go, but good hotels are always the same’, he noted citing an authority. He also welcomed a number of patrons attending a Patron event for the first time.

Peter was followed by the hotel’s general manager, Kevin Kelly, clearly proud of the hotel which he is now running ‘This is an adventure, and we are all in it together’, he declaimed. ‘It is history brought to the 21st Century; we are re-imagining a Victorian masterpiece for future generations.’ Mr Kelly then observed how the hotel was perhaps the crowning glory of the rehabilitation of a part of London, so long neglected, but now coming into its own, with the arrival of such British trophies as The Guardian newspaper (located round the corner from the hotel), the British Library and the Kings Place arts centre also nearby.

The hotel celebrated not merely an artifice for living and luxury, he said, but also the triumph of the train, once, in his own words, ‘the internet of its age’. The

revival of this railway hotel may provide a model for future revivals.

But what of the lavish dinner, to which our Patrons were graced! This started in the former ‘Ladies smoking room’. The building’s knowledgeable and charming historian Royden Stock told us the story of the room, how it had been the first place in Britain where ladies ‘of substance’ could smoke in public! He told how builders taking up the floor in the refurbishment had found a box of cigarettes from 1898, to prove the point that where there was style, there was also substance.

Items of interest will be put on display, we were told, in due course, a living testimony to this treasure of history. Mr Stock’s encyclopaedic knowledge brought the building alive, putting it into the context of the life and achievements of its remarkable architect George Gilbert Scott. He was one of the leading architects of the Victorian Age. The second and third courses were held in one of the hotel’s lavish ‘public’ rooms. This event merited its description as an ‘itinerant dinner’, with guests moving from one gorgeous space to another, to enjoy their food and the décor.

The evening was rounded off by Peter Alfandary, who celebrated the remarkable Chef and staff, the generosity of the hotel in serving Patrons such excellent food, not to mention this magical taste of a history brought to new life. I

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forthcoming events 13th april 2011

Networking Champagne Reception 18.00 – 20.00 £35 + VAT per person At the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel London

For those who would like to be among the first to discover the splendidly restored St Pancras Renaissance Hotel, the Chamber is organising a networking reception on April 13th.

The building, formerly known as the Midland Grand Hotel - was designed and constructed by the

foremost Victorian architect of the time, Sir George Gilbert Scott, and opened on 5th May 1873.

This historic hotel, lovingly and masterfully restored, is one of London´s most iconic hotels. Members will have the pleasure of being greeted by Ed White, Director of Sales and Marketing.

Discover this magnificent Grade-1 listed building and get a chance to win a pair of Standard Premier tickets London-Paris kindly offered by Eurostar.

17th May 2011

SEMINAR: From Basel II to Basel III, What are the changes?

18.00 – 20.30 £50 + VAT per person At HSBC St James’ street Offices

The Chamber is organising a seminar, sponsored by HSBC, on May 17th at HSBC St James Street offices, to introduce “The impact of the new banking regulation on Banks and Corporate financing” to its members.

Basel II, and soon Basel III, are considerable regulatory milestones in the banking sector. The new regulations have brought about much debate,

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but it is still unclear as to what the exact impact for corporates will be. The objective of this event is to review the Basel requirements and help advise companies on the potential benefits available.

HSBC is one of the few global banks which have emerged stronger from the recent financial crisis. Its international presence and broad client base position it as a strong adviser around the global impact of the regulation.

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forthcoming events 31st MAY 2011

Corporate Members Cocktail 18.00 – 20.00 Places limited - FREE AT THE CORINTHIA HOTEL LONDON

The French Chamber is thrilled to announce its very first ‘Corporate Members Cocktail’ which will take place on 31 May, at the Corinthia Hotel London.

This new event is exclusively reserved for our Corporate Members, who are now more than 80 strong. We wish to thank them for their contribution and support to the Chamber.

This event is a fantastic opportunity to discover the newly refurbished Corinthia Hotel, London’s newest 5-star luxury hotel and network with fellow corporate members in a beautiful surrounding.

Lobby entrance whitehall place & chandelier

ABOUT CORINTHIA HOTEL LONDON This 21st century grand hotel opens its doors in April 2011. The property is ideally located in the heart of London on Whitehall Place, at the apex of arts, culture, business and politics.

Corinthia Hotel London is the result of a meticulous reconstruction of what was originally an imposing Victorian-era Grand Hotel. Now reborn to a new standard of craftsmanship and service, Corinthia London features 294 intricately designed guest accommodations, including 43 luxurious suites.

5th july 2011

Patron event sponsored by 18.00 – 22.00 Patron Members only - free

Pernod Ricard UK, as the main sponsor and BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions as the supporting sponsor, are giving the Chamber’s Patron members the fantastic opportunity to be present at the Premiere of Cendrillon.

A new production by Laurent Pelly is always cause for celebration and the welcome arrival of the young French director’s Cendrillon (Cinderella) is no exception. Massenet’s score is enchanting and the cast brings together a brilliant team of performers as renowned for their style, wit and dramatic flair as they are for their exquisite singing.

Cast: Cendrillon - Joyce DiDonato, La Fée – Eglise Gutiérrez, Le Prince Charmant – Alice Coote. Conductor Bertrand de Billy.

The event promises to be a memorable one as Patron members will enjoy an “apéritif dinatoire” in the Conservatory (privatised for the occasion) – a visit backstage and VIP seats.

The Chamber would like to thank Pernod Ricard for being the main sponsor of this fantastic evening and BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions for being a supporting sponsor.

For more details or information about events, please contact Cécilia Gonzalez on cgonzalez@ccfgb.co.uk or on 020 7092 6641 or Elsa Bréchotte on ebrechotte@ccfgb.co.uk or 0207 092 6643 info - april / may 2011 - 75

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forthcoming forums & clubs 13 April 2011

SMEs & Entrepreneurs Club ‘Maximising staff performance through the changing shape of a company’ 08.30 – 10.00 At the french chamber of commerce

Guest Speaker: Julian Payne, General Manager of Threadneedles Hotel (The Eton Collection).

Co-chaired by: Cédric Filet, CEO and Founder of Aldelia Ltd and Nathalie Zimmermann-Nénon, Director and Founder of NZ Consulting.

Julian Payne Julian will offer the SME Club a wealth of experience in sustaining employee morale through both positive and negative changes. Julian currently operates as General Manager of Threadneedles, a 69 Bedroom, 5 star boutique hotel where he has dealt with high occupancy, recession and sourcing new revenue streams. He also has held senior positions at the famous Ritz Hotel in London and ‘The Ascott’ in London’s prestigious Mayfair district from 2002 to 2005.

20th April 2011

‘Luxury and New Media: Communication Challenges’ 08.30 - 10.30 At the dorchester hotel

Guest Speakers: Arnaud de Puyfontaine, Chief Executive of National Magazines, and Steve Hatch, Managing Director of MEC UK. Chaired by: Thierry Outin, Managing Director of Hermès GB Ltd Arnaud de Puyfontaine: Paris-born Arnaud joined NatMag in 2009 as Chief Executive. He began his media career at Le Figaro in 1990 occupying various positions including Managing Director and Publishing Director of the daily newspaper and of the weekly, Le Figaro Économie.

He was a member of the team which founded Emap Group in France and became CEO and Chairman of the group in 1998/99. In 2006, Arnaud became CEO of Mondadori France and a year later, was appointed President of Group Mondadori France. He left this position in 2008. In October last year, French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, appointed Arnaud as President of the ‘Economic Committee’ for the French Press Industry.

Steve Hatch: Steve is the UK CEO of the WPP owned media and communications agency MEC. The fastest growing and most awarded agency of the last three years, MEC is responsible for over £700 million of media spend for clients such as Lloyds Banking Group, Orange, Nintendo and Chanel.

Prior to joining MEC Steve held a career in adverting and has worked at some of the best agencies including BMP DDB, PHD and Young and Rubican and has co authored a book on the subject ‘Rigorous Magic’ was published by Willey in 2008.

For more details or information about our Forums & Clubs, please contact Nadia A.Ziani or Jonathan Rosen, on forums@ccfgb.co.uk or on o207 092 6638

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10th May 2011

CSR Forum Roundtable Session: ‘Sustainability & Core Research of European CSR Projects’ 08.30 – 10.00 At the french chamber of commerce

Guest Speaker: Laurent Abadie, Chairman and CEO of Panasonic Europe.

Chaired by Christophe Gasc, BPM Alliance Manager, North East Europe at IBM and Deputy Chaired by David Glass, Partner at Pritchard Englefield.

Laurent Abadie Laurent Abadie joined Panasonic France as Managing Director in 2004. The following year he was appointed President of the French division. Under his guidance, Panasonic has led the French digital camera market since the first quarter of 2007 with its Lumix range. Panasonic has also climbed from 5th to 2nd place in the French plasma screen market under his leadership.

In 2008, he was appointed Executive Officer on the board of directors of the Panasonic Corporation in Japan.

13th May 2011

HR Forum ‘Diversity and the Davies Report’ 08.30 – 10.00 At the french chamber of commerce

Guest Speaker: Michelle Brailsford , Co-President EPWN Acting Chair: Nigel Brown, Director of Organisational & Cultural Transformation of AXA UK. Michelle Brailsford Michelle is an international Organisational Consultant with Jupiter Consulting Group, helping teams and leaders to add life back into work. Previously she was Head of Management Development for United Pan-European Communications, living in the Netherlands with a pan-European remit. Prior to moving to Europe, Michelle worked for MCI Communications in Washington DC, where she held the roles of Human Resources Manager and Change Management consultant. She has recently joined the BBC to look after Talent Management and Succession Planning.

TAKE ADVANTAGE OF fellow MEMBERS OFFERS! The member to member offers book is out!

Already a member? Use your member to member offers book to get discounted rates and services from other fellow members.

It features more than 80 offers through various categories such as Business Services, Language and Recruitment, Leisure & Hotel and Retail. From free financial advice, coaching sessions or legal and tax consultations to special hotel rates, free international currency transfers and much more!

You can also consult the book online now on www.ccfgb.co.uk

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Questionnaire De Proust Sophie Marceau

S

ince her acting debut in La Boum in 1980, Sophie Marceau has never stopped being France’s sweetheart. She managed to shoot both in France and abroad and always won the audience’s love and sympathy.

Her career has constantly been a subtle choice between comic and dramatic films. From the success of La Boum 1 & 2 (1980-1982) to her directional debut with Speak to me of Love (2002) and Anthony Zimmer (2005),

She has achieved popular European and even worldwide successes such as La Fille de D’Artagnan (1994), Braveheart (1995), James Bond’s The world is not enough (1999) or the more recent refreshing French hit LOL (2008).

Sophie gave an interview to Jonathan Ross from the Concorde Lafayette Hotel in Paris a few weeks ago. This exclusive interview will be broadcast on the Cinémoi Channel very soon. In the meantime, she agreed to answer INFO’s Questionnaire de Proust.

My favourite colour: all colours The flower I like: poppies, orchid My favourite animal: cat My favourite prose author: Thomas Bernhard My favourite poets: Louis Aragon, René Char My hero in fiction: Robin Hood My favourite heroines in fiction:

Pipi Longstocking My favourite composers:

Mozart, Liszt, Saint-Saens My favourite painters: © Ki Price

Goya, Bacon, van Dongen

The principal aspect of my personality:

Marie Curie, Karen Blixen, and Mummy!

My favourite name: Jack

To not know it

What I hate the most of all: nastiness

The quality that I desire in a woman:

Historical figure I despise most: Stalin

determination What I appreciate most about my friends:

discretion My main fault:

lack of self-confidence My favourite occupation:

writing or being with loved ones My dream of happiness:

to not worry anymore My greatest private misfortune:

to not play music What I should like to be:

an egotist The place I would like to live in:

a cabin in the mountains

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My heroes in real life:

My favourite food and drink:

oysters and red wine The military event that I admire the most:

D-Day The reform which I admire the most:

abolition of the death sentence The gift of nature I would like to have:

regeneration My present state of mind:

giggly Faults for which I have the most indulgence:

children’s faults My motto:

le simple sentiment d’être en vie m’est une extase. Emily Dickinson

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