Henley Focus March 2015 Final2

Focus

ISSUE 7. MARCH 2015

Bringing you the insights you need to drive your agenda

The future of executive education P3

READ

READ

Henley launches Women in Leadership Forum to a packed house P4

READ

READ

Stand up for collective action P6

New venture aids community-food enterprises P7

Preferred learning and development activities by employee group 60%

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40%

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Are you suffering from lack of depth malady? P8

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Largest ever Corporate Learning Survey flags latest challenges P10 Classroom-based

High potentials Blended (online/face-to-face)

First-line managers Coaching Project-based

READ Online

Profile: Professor Moira Clark P12 Experiential

Welcome

Welcome to another issue of Focus@Henley – the home of essential business insights!

In this edition of Henley Business School’s online digest, we bring you the latest insights into leadership, management, strategy, HR, coaching and more…

Read on to find out about…

- the future of executive education - how Henley is exploring the role of women in leadership - how collective action is changing organisational culture - the latest news about community food enterprises - how to overcome ‘lack of depth’ malady!

- how to sleep like a pro - Professor Moira Clark, Henley’s Head of Marketing and Reputation - the results from our recent Corporate Learning Survey Claire Hewitt, Head of Learning Design +44 (0) 1491 418767 exec@henley.ac.uk www.henley.ac.uk

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www.henley.ac.uk/executiveeducation

Point of View

The future of executive education John Wills

From an interview with John Wills, Head of Partnerships, Henley Business School

For the full article, click here

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t a recent strategy day held at Henley Business School, the latest trends in executive education were analysed and debated at some length by a group of academics, practitioners, entrepreneurs and business leaders.

‘Understandably, organisations have become less inclined to invest in senior management development without some clearly visible benefit or capability improvement that gives them a positive return on their spend.

The assessment of general trends within executive education highlighted a paradigm shift in the process of knowledge transfer, away from the traditional classroom teaching model and towards a greater focus on learning pathways created for each individual participant.

‘Consequently, the “learning events” created by business schools evolved into “learning journeys”, which typically comprised three elements:

According to John Wills: ‘People were being taught, and felt inspired, but there was little in the way of follow-up, or any connection with the business outcome, so while the delegates became more strategic in their thinking, they weren’t always applying that thinking to their real-life working situation.

• skills development (e.g. being able to analyse P&L records) • behavioural development (which involves a change of mindset, better strategic thinking, improved decisionmaking etc) • listening/coaching (the ability to lead and inspire others) • ‘Even then,’ John asserts, ‘the learning journeys were all very similar – a onesize fits all solution – and lacked on-thejob learning that would really add value.

‘As a result, the 70/20/10 model was increasingly applied, whereby 70% of the learning experience was gained in situ, 20% through internal resources (often the boss, mentor or coach), and only the final 10% through traditional classroom teaching. This enabled the specific challenges faced by managers and organisations to be addressed head-on, and a much greater and quicker return on investment to be achieved.’

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Now and into the future…

In order to ensure that clients continue to get maximum value, Henley and other enlightened business schools have changed the emphasis on programmes to deliver more relevant learning pathways based on three guiding principles: • mapping individuals’ values and competences (‘…and values, such as ethics, inclusivity and the moral compass are becoming a dominant element in this,’ adds John) • a menu of training opportunities closely matched to the gaps identified in the mapping exercise, such as online learning and collaborative assignments • integration with on-the-job experience: through coaching, mentoring ‘In the future, we’ll be applying the 70/20/10 model much more widely,’ says John, ‘and helping to close the gaps much more cost-effectively than ever before.

‘At Henley, we’ve been building the components that will support these learning pathways, delivering hybrid learning programmes that encompass videos, webinars and coaching via Skype in combination with face-to-face engagement.

‘Henley has always been a beacon of academic rigour backed by practitionerled learning and research-based insights.

We aim to ensure that by applying this heritage through digital delivery channels we will ensure that ‘the Henley way’ maintains its world-class status for decades to come.’

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Women in Leadership Forum

Henley launches Women in Leadership Forum to a packed house

Professor Ginny Gibson

Professor Ginny Gibson, Deputy Dean, Henley Business School

For the full article, click here

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enley Business School’s Deputy Dean, Professor Ginny Gibson, welcomed over 160 business leaders and entrepreneurs to CBRE’s London headquarters for the launch of the Women in Leadership Forum for Henley alumni.

The predominantly female audience consisted of Henley alumni and corporate guests, and covered a cross section of career stages. Ginny began by introducing the speakers and restated Henley’s commitment to building confidence in women and supporting them throughout their working journey. She highlighted Henley’s position as one of the top business schools in the world for female faculty and the percentage of women in its MBA programmes.

However, according to Ginny, there is still much more to be done: ‘We need to remove the blockages to women taking their rightful place in the boardroom, through a variety of initiatives, including our partnership with the 30% Club.

There are pipeline issues that must be addressed to ensure that future generations of women are appropriately represented and Henley is well placed to support women at all stages of their careers.’

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Professor Patricia Riddell – stereotypes and unconscious bias

The speakers for this event were:

Dr Shaheena JanjuhaJivraj – shifting gears in women’s leadership An Associate Professor at the Henley Centre for Entrepreneurship, Shaheena shared the results of a 2011 survey of 500 women leaders, drawn from the public sector, FTSE businesses and entrepreneurs, which looked into the barriers to progress.

The research revealed three key themes: • a lack of trust in the recruitment progress

Patricia is Professor of Applied Neuroscience at the University of Reading, of which the Henley Business School is a constituent part.

She believes that part of the issue in recruitment may be the way in which the brain processes stereotyping activation.

Patricia illustrated her point by showing a series of optical illusions which our brains refuse to let us perceive as real, even when we know the truth!

Patricia then explained the role of schemas – organised patterns of thought that we use to order and process information.

• a need for women to step up and provide role models • a need for active sponsorship, rather than mentoring Shaheena asserts that ‘We need to raise visibility of women leaders, in order to raise aspirations for all women.

www.henley.ac.uk/executiveeducation

Seeing is not always believing!

Even when we know that the lines are the same length, we don’t believe it, showing again that parts of our brains are not always joined up.

‘We judge people by our experience of the image they project, their appearance, clothes and so on,’ Patricia told us. ‘We create these schemata, unconsciously. And they are biased.’

‘In the work environment, we must check our facts, and must be prepared to change our minds.’

Patricia ended her session with the suggestion that we can all learn and benefit ‘by understanding what it is in our (or their) brains that activates the stereotyping.’

Panel discussion – board-ready women The second half of the event featured a panel of women in business roles, each with a different background, each facing different challenges: Emily Stevens, at the start of a management career at Boots; Sue Bence, Head of M&A Operations and Integration at Slater & Gordon Lawyers; Lisa Mota Pinto, originally from Portugal and now a management consultant in the transport industry; Sue Clayton, Executive Director, Capital Markets at CBRE. Facilitating the discussion, Ginny Gibson led the panel to air their views on topics as diverse as: • d iversity data – how much do we have, is it enough, and is it transparent?

• the difference between mentors • networking outside your comfort zone • bias against women in the workplace • q uotas for women in the boardroom (with some very surprising views!)

• l ack of confidence, and the need to ‘fudge it’!

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Ginny thanked the speakers, the panel and the audience, and reiterated how much she was looking forward to cocreating research together.

In wrapping up a hugely successful event, Ginny concluded that ‘Confidence is the key. And whilst you have to be honest with yourself about why you lack confidence, you also have to believe that you’ve earned whatever success comes to you, and you deserve it.’

Post-event reaction After the event, participants were asked for their impressions:

‘A really well-run event. Excellent pace and content. I hope it’s the start of something good and important.’

‘The issue of quotas is such an interesting one, and it was fantastic to hear both sides of the argument being put forward.’

‘I loved this event, especially hearing from the panel. It is incredibly reassuring to hear that other women are experiencing the same challenges as me.’

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The Henley Partnership

Stand up for collective action Professor Peter Hawkins

Professor Peter Hawkins, Professor of Leadership, Henley Business School

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t the recent full day event delivered through Henley Partnership’ Professor Peter Hawkins contends that ‘the heroic CEO is dead – long live teams!’ and we need to rethink our strategies ‘future back and outside in’…

As Professor of Leadership at Henley Business School, Peter Hawkins has been looking into – amongst other things – how team and board development impacts on cultural change within organisations.

He explained how the burgeoning challenges of leadership have created an environment where high performing teams will have to raise their game and function as more than the sum of their parts.

The need to connect strategy, culture and leadership

The five C’s of team performance and the ‘checklist manifesto’

Peter’s research and experience has In a live-case workshop, the participants shown that optimum performance worked in pairs to assess their own requires strategy, culture and leadership specific challenges, and learned the to be aligned, and need to address power of expressing their commitment tomorrow’s needs. This “outside-in” to change - out loud - to their fellow approach requires a shift in thinking from: ‘coaches’.

• share value to shared value Underpinned by a model developed • competing on product to providing

by Peter for improving team performance a differentiated customer experience (based on commissioning, clarifying, co• brand image to lived brand creating, connecting and core learning), • leading those who report to you the meeting participants learned about a to leading with others across range of practical ways in which strategic organisational boundaries planning meetings and learnings can be • leader development to leadership significantly improved. By doing so, Peter development showed how great leadership teams can The challenges for all of us include: create more meaningful, sustainable greater demand, higher quality and more and ethical growth and create real sustainability. But looking at the bigger competitive advantage. picture, and seeing the projections for population growth and consumer The Henley Partnership demand over the next generation, the outlook is bleak – unless we reassess To learn more about this and other our approach. events, or to find out how your Our big mistake is to focus on output organisation can become a member and activities, rather than outcomes. So of The Henley Partnership, contact what can… what must we do to change? hp@henley.ac.uk or +44(0)1491 418855.

And those teams have to learn to deliver increasing value to their stakeholders, or risk extinction. Indeed, Peter insists that a Darwinian equation, L > EC, applies, Part of the answer, at least, is to inject where the rate of collective Learning greater diversity into our teams, and within an organisation (L) must be enable our managers to make the greater than the rate of Environment transition from ‘team manager’ Change (EC) in order for that organisation to ‘team coach’: to be sustainable.

Team Manager 6

Team Leader

Team Orchestrator

Team Coach www.henley.ac.uk/executiveeducation

Enterprise Projects

New venture aids community-food enterprises Dr. Richard J. Nunes, Lecturer in Real Estate and Planning, Henley Business School

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s community-food enterprises (CFEs) seek to accelerate their growth and professionalism, they are encountering a range of technical issues, such as waste management, the production of on-site energy, land-use change, food packaging and food safety standards.

The Henley Centre for Entrepreneurship has been involved in the design and preparation of the focus groups and workshops. Together with the other project partners, the Centre has helped CFEs and other supporting organisations to highlight the barriers and opportunities to the realisation of an ideal marketplace, and what support structures might be put in place to help them access and grow this market.

Cities on the Grow (CoTG) is a researchled collaboration that has been set up to help.

Dr Richard Nunes of the School of Real A co-operative venture with partners Estate and Planning at the University as diverse as the Environment Agency, The process model comprises 5 ‘packages’: of Reading, who is co-leader of the Thornton’s Budgens and the University study, said: ‘This is an important project.

1. Climate & Environment of Reading, CoTG has been looking at Gathers data on climate, resources and the We are looking for ethical business how local food systems can provide a investors and other partners who may be environment for different types of CFEs, more ecologically sustainable and socially identifying those systems with the greatest willing to support the prototyping and just alternative to the conventional implementation of a CFE support platform climate benefits. global industrialised food system. in London and/or Amsterdam.’

2. Policy & Governance ‘We aim to take forward this study, Reviews the policy environment for addressing the urban and rural inequalities different CFEs, identifying bottlenecks in food access and health. Identifying and opportunities across governance policy levers that reinforce city regional arrangements for network support, food economies that complement urban innovation and funding. systems e.g. waste to energy streams, 3. Market, Consumers & Business must be underpinned by a focus on Identifies business and consumer these inequalities.’ perceptions and motivations, as well as For further information, or to help determinants of success and barriers to with the COTG survey, visit the development and professionalisation www.citiesonthegrow.org. of CFEs.

In particular, CoTG wants to establish the impacts that CFEs are having on climate change and human health and wellbeing, and ultimately to support a commercially viable business model for CFEs.

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4. Identifying Business Incubator Models Co-produces business incubator models that can support established and start-up CFEs. 5. Project Co-ordination & Management Integrates all the project activity and outputs with the involvement of project partners and their associated communities.

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The HR Doctor

Are you suffering from lack of depth malady?

If so, the good news is that it’s very common, and there is a cure…

Visiting Professor Nick Holley

Visiting Professor Nick Holley, Co-Director, Henley Centre for HR Excellence

To read the full article, click here

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n the latest episode of Nick Holley’s tongue-in-cheek series exploring common HR problems, the HR Doctor looks at one of the most prevalent afflictions: lack of depth malady.

The good news is, there is a cure…

What are the symptoms?

• Lack of depth is most critical in HR’s understanding of their own business, and is often caused simply by HR people seeing finance as the enemy as opposed to their key ally.

• In the worst cases, HR lacks depth in the source of its expertise; they don’t know the basic HR models and don’t philosophise about HR, so when challenged, there’s no depth. As more books on HR-related topics give line managers the belief that they are experts, the problem grows.

What is the impact?

As a result of this reduced credibility, HR is kept in its ‘box’ and is never consulted on the important decisions, where there are serious people implications.

For example, I was working with one management team in a bank and their chief financial officer (CFO) told me about his HR director colleague. At a meeting looking at a major investment decision, the project was about to be

nodded through when the HR director piped up: ‘Hang on a minute, I’ve just been running through these numbers and this net present value (NPV) calculation is out. The denominator is wrong and when I’ve fed in what I think is the right number, this is a negative NPV. Why are we agreeing to this?’

When the CFO checked the numbers the HR director was correct. As he said: ‘It was a bit embarrassing for me but he was dead right, and the rest of the board and I have looked at him in a different light ever since.’

• Complications can really set in when HR professionals don’t connect or work together with other parts of HR. • ‘Lack of depth malady’ can result in a severe dose of ‘oversimplificationitis’, through a lack of understanding.

• All of this leaves HR looking amateurish and lacking in credibility.

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www.henley.ac.uk/executiveeducation

Business Snippets

Sleep: How to nap like a pro We’ve all heard of the merits of power naps, but are there good and bad ways to sleep during the day?

So what can be done to cure it?

• If you have little or no understanding of business, go on a crash course, to help you understand critical concepts such as cashflow, costs and margins, shareholder value, etc.

• Spend time looking at your numbers, read your annual report and management accounts; get to understand how you make money.

• Develop systemic ways of thinking: look at how the different elements of the business and HR link together.

• Invest time in your own professional development, read around the subject, go to conferences, and reflect deeply on the nature of HR: the art, the craft and the science.

Edited from a paper by Nick Holley.

Author Nick Holley is joint programme director for The Advanced HR Business Partner Programme. Nick regularly contributes to articles in the HR press.

While at Henley, Nick has worked with: Agusta Westland, Amey, the Army, BAT, B&Q, Bestseller, BT, Cadbury Schweppes, Canon, Cisco, Danone, Government of Abu Dhabi, GSK, Imperial, Inchcape, Kelly, Kone, KPMG, Mercedes Benz, Microsoft, Ministry of Justice, Nestle, NHS, Oracle, Oxfam, Oxford Instruments, Panasonic, RBS, S3, Sainsbury’s, Shell, Siemens, Smiths, Travelport, TSystems, Unilever, Vodafone, and Willmott Dixon

While society largely looks down upon napping, evidence is growing that it can produce cognitive benefits – from increased alertness to improved motor skills, perception and memory consolidation.

So how do you get the best from a brief bit of shuteye?

A study at the Beijing University of Technology examined the effect of napping on athletes after training. It found that naps could improve brain function and visual systems, and promote physical and mental recovery.

Indeed, several years ago, the University of California’s Sara Mednick and her colleagues published a study that looked at the benefits of 200mg of caffeine (about the amount in a cup of coffee) compared to a 60–90 minute daytime nap. They found that a nap generally improved memory performance, while caffeine either didn’t affect – or worsened – performance.

The promised benefits of sleep have even persuaded a few firms to allow their employees to nap at work. Software company HubSpot designed a napping room in its Massachusetts office that features a hammock and dim lighting. Employees are free to book the space without limitations.

According to HubSpot’s Alison Elworthy, the policy is a huge success, especially helpful for new parents who are making up for disrupted sleep at night, or employees recovering from jetlag. ‘People are really excited to use it and haven’t abused the policy at all,’ she says.

The best way to nap According to researchers, the most natural time to nap is between 2pm and 4pm; the best balance of slow-wave and REM sleep typically occurs 6–8 hours after waking.

But the best way to nap also depends on what kind of effects you’re looking for.

‘So if you’re looking for a restorative nap, you should sleep later in the day when you have an increased amount of slow wave sleep,’ says Mednick, ‘and if you’re looking for a nap that might aid your creativity, you should sleep earlier in the day when you experience more REM.’ It seems that to nap properly, you have to ask a professional.

(Adapted from an article at www.bbc.com/future/story/20150106-howto-nap-like-a-pro The author, Tiffanie Wen, is a freelance writer based in Tel Aviv. You can find her @tiffaniewen.)

Follow on Twitter @HenleyBSchool@

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Latest Research

Largest ever Corporate Learning Survey highlights the challenges in organisational leadership development in 2015 Executive Education, Henley Business School

For the full article, click here

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ow in its sixth year, the Henley Corporate Learning Survey surveyed 368 executives from 39 countries, its largest ever group of respondents, regarding their organisational priorities and challenges.

The survey results confirmed that leadership development – at all levels in the organisation – has never been more important, despite increasing time and cost pressures.

The survey results revealed that the key challenges for organisations in the next three years relate to the development of: • organisation-wide leadership capabilities whilst also controlling costs • senior management’s ability to lead in a volatile, uncertain and complex environment • high potentials’ commercial acumen and customer engagement

current system as a whole. This makes the development of new talent, who can make the needed repairs, crucial for the future.

This development of talent means an intricate engagement by senior executives with the top talent within their organisation.

How many CEOs currently have quarterly or even annual meetings with their high potentials, for instance?’

In terms of organisational learning and development activities in 2015, the survey results which most stood out related to: • retaining talent in the business, which for the third year running is the top people management objective amongst our respondents • coaching, which is again listed as the dominant learning and development activity planned (by 85% of respondents), and is also most likely to be identified as the ‘preferred’ learning method for senior-level executives and high potentials

• time constraints, with 42% of respondents believing that the optimal time spent on development of senior management was only up to five days per year, although at least 11 days per year was seen as the optimum for high potentials. Dr Bernd Vogel, Associate Professor of Leadership and Organisational Behaviour at Henley Business School commenting on the results said that, ‘Time away from the office should not be the issue, if senior executive development is given the priority it needs to help organisations address the challenges they report in this survey. Also, managing complexity might be something that is very difficult to replicate, for instance, in a purely online environment. So companies are facing a dilemma that they want to control time spent away by their senior people Executive and senior management Middle management and the costs of executive Coaching Project-based Online Experiential programmes, but leadership

Andrew Kakabadse, Professor of Governance and Leadership at Henley Business School commenting on the results said that, ‘In the current business landscape of discontinuous change, the smart companies will try to get extra competitive advantage by harnessing the human factor. Talent development is the answer to70% the fault lines that exist within organisations, and within the 60%

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High potentials Classroom-based

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First-line managers Blended (online/face-to-face)

www.henley.ac.uk/executiveeducation

Working with business schools

Planned development activities 2015 Group online learning

2014 2015

Open executive education programmes Customised executive education

Finally, the survey measured what organisations consider to be important factors when choosing a business school partner or programme.

The ability of customised executive education programmes to impact on performance and business issues was rated more highly than in previous surveys – this was selected by almost four out of five respondents as ‘very important’.

Externally accredited programmes Individual online learning Team coaching Blended learning Peer-to-peer activities Individual coaching 0%

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of complex decisions can’t be taken on board in five minutes on the go. Nevertheless for our part, we also need to understand better how executives learn within their day-to-day working environments and how executive development interventions can even better harness and interact with that on-the-job development.’

• budgets, with over half of respondents predicting a budget standstill and 21% anticipating a fall, but 23% predicting a rise (a slight drop in confidence compared to the previous year) • blended learning and individual online learning, with over half of respondent organisations planning these; however, despite online learning having entered the mainstream, the purely online learning option was considered to be the least preferred activity type across every employee group.

Claire Hewitt, Head of Learning Design at Henley Business School commenting on the results said that, ‘We are noticing how buyers of senior management programmes are looking for much more integration of methodologies to create a richer learning experience and a better chance of embedding the learning. Providers who can engender learning through cleverly related media will design the most powerful solutions for their clients. The need for online delivery has increased as part of a blended programme – where we really have to make the facilitated face-to-face experiences of every variety count and deliver more, as organisations want to reduce travel time and costs.’

And for executive development, the focus was on organisational impact: • two-thirds of respondents felt that executive development will help them to achieve their organisation’s operational objectives

There was an increase in the demand for experiential learning, 80% 100% and the use of experts in organisational development, such as experienced practitioners and industry experts as part of the programmes.

And there was a 9 percentage point increase in respondents reporting that the ability to demonstrate a return on investment was considered to be a ‘very important factor’ for them, underlining the ongoing demand for the delivery of sustainable value.

Professor Abby Ghobadian, Head of School of Leadership, Organisations & Behaviour commenting on the results said that, ‘The findings of the 6th Annual Henley Corporate Learning Survey represent the other side of the coin showing the characteristics of successful organisations highlighted by the recent All Party Parliamentary Group report examining the future of management and leadership in the UK entitled ‘Management 2020: Leadership to Unlock Long-term Growth’. It concluded that successful organisations had three distinctive features. Purpose and values - including clear articulation of social benefits and leadership accountability. People - how the organisation prepares managers and leaders at all levels. Potential - how does the organisation support the next generation of managers and leaders. These success factors closely chime with the challenges highlighted by this survey including that of ‘overall leadership capability’, ‘effectiveness of management teams’, ‘speed of change’, ‘growth’ and ‘cultural change’. Successful organisations invest in development of their people at all levels. They succeed because they have outstanding people, hence, better equipped to deal with environmental turbulence, managing change and securing growth.’

• the challenge for organisations will be to achieve the required executive development while facing budget constraints and to be able to measure, understand and demonstrate the impact of that investment • the challenge for business schools will be to work closely with organisations to help them achieve this understanding, and to ensure that executive development interventions are client-centred and focus on the ability to impact business performance.

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Profile

Professor Moira Clark

Head of Marketing and Reputation; Professor of Strategic Marketing; Director, Henley Centre for Customer Management

Professor Moira Clark

For more about Moira’s academic career click here

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decade or so ago, Moira Clark went to a reunion of her school friends from Birkenhead High School.

recuperation time learning ‘hospital German’ to add to her repertoire of capabilities.

When there was a delay in serving dinner, it seemed the most natural thing in the world for Moira to go and see what the problem was.

On returning to the UK, Moira joined Cranfield School of Management, Cranfield University as a lecturer, and spent a total of 14 years there, during which time she completed her PhD and became an Associate Professor. Having always admired the strong emphasis that Henley put on links with practitioners, she joined the Henley team in 2006 and set up the Henley Centre for Customer Management. The Centre is a consortium of companies that are interested in leading-edge best practice in customer management, and has become a nationally and internationally-renowned applied research centre.

When she returned, her friends reminded her with some delight that she was still ‘the same old Moira’, obsessive about customer service, and determined to make sure it was put right! This approach was to be the foundation of her passion for influencing policy, and has driven her to the top of her profession.

Although born in London, Moira grew up under the wings of her three older sisters on the Wirral. Her parents ran the family baking and confectionery business, and Moira clearly remembers the influence this had on her attitude to service.

‘My mum was always intolerant of poor service,’ she recalls, ‘and it was definitely part of my character too, even from an early age. So I guess that it must have been in my DNA.’ After leaving University, Moira joined the toiletries subsidiary of Dunhill as a Marketing Brand Manager, and began lecturing in Marketing at Leicester Polytechnic, while doing an Executive MBA at Cranfield School of Management.

Her determination to make the best of any situation was exemplified a few years later when she was working in Munich as an International Marketing Consultant, specialising in assessing mergers & acquisitions from a marketing perspective.

Two weeks before her wedding, she was involved in a bad ski-ing accident. But undeterred, she simply insisted on having an ivory-coloured plaster cast to match her dress, and the wedding went ahead as planned. And although the honeymoon had to be postponed, she spent her

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Now. as Head of the School of Marketing and Reputation, Moira is justly proud that it has doubled in size under her leadership, and even though she is very much in demand at high-level conferences around the world (she has presented at 47 in the last 2 years!), she still finds time to teach on Henley’s MBA and MSc programmes and other executive education programmes at Henley.

Moira has long been a champion of the role of women in academia. ‘Henley is special,’ she asserts, ‘not just because of its practitioner links, and the way that it uses research to inform its learning and development, but also because more than any other institution I know, it recognises the part that women can play, even at the highest levels.’

‘In most academic organisations, there’s not so much a glass ceiling as a steel one, and there are so few women who have reached professorial positions. At Henley, women are highly respected for their own abilities, and are not expected to follow the ‘Mummy track’, but are given the scope to push the boundaries on an equal footing’.

Outside of her own career, Moira clearly takes great pride in seeing her own children starting off on their own professional journeys, and also has a passion for the outdoor life. Despite her earlier ski-ing incident, her love for it remains undiminished, but it is the sea that provides her greatest pull, and she visibly lights up at any mention of sailing or scuba diving, declaring that: ‘…the first time I went scuba diving, I was captivated. I just wanted to stay down there.’

But Moira is a powerful professional force, and it’s never too long before her attention is drawn back to executive education, and Henley.

‘Executive education is changing, and there is a huge appetite for reflective thoughtfulness. Leaders and their organisations are no longer satisfied with quick fixes, and Henley offers a unique marriage of intellectual thought and business practice.

‘We’re moving towards being a genuinely global business school and the combination of our heritage, reputation and applied academic research means that we can stake a strong claim to be the one-stop, go-to business school.

A measure of how far Moira has come was demonstrated last year when she was invited to chair a prestigious Cabinet Office sponsored committee of ombudsmen and NGO representatives investigating how new technology can be used by customers to submit complaints against organisations.

‘I want to see us develop our links with government and industry even further, and reinforce our position as a leader in decision-making and informing policy.

‘And of course, to continue to offer the same focus on our customers as we always have.’

And for Moira – perhaps not surprisingly – that’s the bottom line.

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