Imperial Business 2017-18

04 Meet the new Dean

Imperial Business 2017–18

The future of finance From crowdfunding to AI, we look at how technology is changing the face of markets

25 Healthy thinking

36 What the Tech?

MSc Business Analytics (Online) A two-year, flexible, part-time programme, new for 2018.

The programme prepares you for a future of data and evidence-based decision making, delivered online via our purpose-built interactive learning platform.

Find out more: imperial.ac.uk/business-school/ msc-business-analytics-online

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Contents Q&A

Comment

Regulars

Profiles

Features

14 Finance

04 Dean’s Welcome

12 Quit Genius

20 Imperial Business Analytics

25 Health Economics and Policy

06 News

22 Ileana Stigliani

34 Technology

46 The Future

08 Events

32 Victoria Cleland

38 The Dean’s Fund

40 Alumni

44 Samuel Eilon

Editorial enquiries imperial-business@imperial.ac.uk +44 (0)20 7589 5111

Contributors Rachael Davies, Kurstin Finch Gnehm, Rebecca Firth, Rachael Glasgow, Seb Murray, Celia Pearce, Helena Pozniak, Ruth Saunders, Laura Singleton

Get in touch We’d love to hear what you think about Imperial Business. If you have a moment, please let us know by paying a visit to imprl.biz/mag-feedback

Alumni enquiries alumni-business@imperial.ac.uk +44 (0)20 7594 6137 Editorial Claire Bower Marketing and Communications Manager Michael Mills Communications Officer

Original photography Marcus Ginns, Jane Stockdale With thanks to Thomas Angus, Anne Barrett, Abby Bryson, Hannah Edwards, Erin Hallet, Kate Heyworth, Hannah Magdziarek, Paul Mburu, Alex Mee, Meryem Mehmet, Amanda Stratton, Megan Taylor-Silva, Emily Troake, Karen Tweddle, Andrew Youngson Design opx.co.uk

© Imperial College Business School 2017 The opinions expressed in Imperial Business are those of the contributors and not necessarily those of Imperial College Business School. While all reasonable efforts have been made to ensure the information in this publication is correct, matters covered by this publication are subject to change.

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Welcome from the Dean Imperial College Business School’s new Dean on the exciting times in which we live and learn

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“ I want to see us making even greater progress in addressing the changing demands of not just business but society as a whole” What an exciting time it is to be joining Imperial College Business School. Science and advanced technology are increasingly pervasive across every part of our lives – think of the smartphone in your pocket, it would have been considered a supercomputer just 30 years ago – and that makes this a unique place to research, study and learn.

Across Imperial College London, people are developing fantastic new technologies and solutions to improve business and society, and the Business School is at the forefront of supporting that work. Through the research and intellectual leadership of our faculty, and the innovative and engaging learning experience of our students (as well as projects and initiatives with corporations, startups and government), the School strives to provide world-class understanding of what these advances and breakthroughs mean for us all.

This is particularly important as we consider, for example, the impact the digital revolution is having on how business is done around the world. Entrepreneurs are exploring a set of amazing new opportunities that digital brings, but there are equally important challenges and concerns. Long-established firms can’t rely on their past successes to carry them in the future: Nokia and Compaq seemed unassailable in their prime.

The digital transformation cuts across core disciplines within business education, from marketing to operations and finance.

This presents a significant opportunity for business schools to further collaborate with firms and the public sector to develop cutting edge research and intellectual leadership.

New degrees and products are being launched to equip graduates with the skills to succeed in this new environment, while at the same time we are seizing the opportunity to push forwards our executive training and hone the

skills of professionals working across sectors.

And we are challenging ourselves in the education space, where there is a big shift towards online and blended education. The School is already a leader in these markets thanks to the hard work and foresight of our Edtech Lab. In 2017, the first cohort of our Global Online MBA graduated, and as they take what they have learnt out into the wider business world, we are putting our own lessons to good use in our Executive MBA programme, as well as in our online Business Analytics programme that will be launching in 2018.

But the challenges go beyond digital and we can always go further. I want to see us making even greater progress in addressing the changing demands of not just business but society as a whole in critical areas such as healthcare, climate change, innovation and analytics.

We also have the very great fortune of being located in the heart of London, an amazing city for many reasons and a real melting pot of different cultures. It’s a dynamic city, which makes it a very attractive place to study and do business. At the core of the city is its strong, diverse and dynamic financial sector – and the School has demonstrated strong leadership and clear visibility in that sector through the establishment of the Brevan Howard Centre for Financial Analysis. This year, we will continue to push forwards in this area: that is why we have taken as the theme of this issue, and of our 2018 conference, ‘The Future of Finance’.

But London is also a city with a thriving entrepreneurial scene, particularly in the world of fintech. Areas like the City, Old Street and Shoreditch are hotbeds of new tech talent – hundreds of fresh startups crowd the streets, and any one of them could transform an industry.

Entrepreneurs have transformed the business world and, as a result, young people are now

more aware of the value of starting their own business or venture. At the Business School, we are deeply committed to supporting the evergrowing entrepreneurial drive of our students and staff; in this issue of Imperial Business, you will read about graduates who have put on hold careers in medicine to pursue their entrepreneurial dreams.

The coming year brings a calendar-full of other events, such as Imperial Business in the City, our annual conference, and a host of talks and presentations. From the effects of artificial intelligence to investment decisions, from crowdfunding to big data, our faculty and our students are the ones who know what the future holds. A school such as ours can play a leading role in educating the world about these complex issues.

In uncertain political and economic times, three things are certain: London’s business centres will thrive; innovation will flourish; and the work of the Business School will only become more important. After all, Imperial means intelligent business.

Francisco Veloso Dean of Imperial College Business School

News

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C HA R T E

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GEND

A round-up of key news from across Imperial College Business School

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The business news

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Business School recognised for gender equality Imperial College Business School’s new Dean Professor Francisco Veloso joined the Business School as its new Dean in August. Before joining Imperial, Professor Veloso had served as Dean of the Católica Lisbon School of Business and Economics, Portugal’s leading business school, since 2012. He is a leading authority in innovation and entrepreneurship; his research has focused on how firms and regions develop and leverage science and technology for economic growth. Professor Veloso succeeds Professor Nelson Phillips, who had served as Acting Dean since 2016.

The Business School has been recognised for its work in tackling gender inequality in higher education with a Bronze Athena SWAN Award.

The awards are organised by the Equality Challenge Unit, an organisation that works to further and support equality and diversity for staff and students in UK higher education. Imperial is among the first university business schools to receive the award, following the extension of Athena criteria to include gender equality in arts, humanities, social sciences, business and law. The award is among a number of efforts to increase gender diversity across the School.

In case you missed it, you can read the new Dean’s welcome on page 4

Imperial scores gold for teaching excellence In June, Imperial College London received the Gold Award in the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF). Gold is the highest award available within the TEF. The panel said Imperial demonstrated:

“ An exceptionally stimulating and stretching academic, vocational and professional education that successfully challenges students to achieve their full potential [as well as] an embedded culture of student engagement and active philosophy of students as partners that supports retention, achievement and outstanding career outcomes.”

Carol Propper honoured for excellence in healthcare economics In May, Professor Carol Propper, along with two US academics, was awarded the International Health Economics Association’s 25th Arrow Award, which recognises excellence in the field of health economics. The researchers received the prize for a paper demonstrating that allowing competition and choice in healthcare systems raised standards, reduced waste and saved lives.

You can read more about Professor Propper’s work on page 26

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Another strong year for rankings Excellence in education is at the core of Imperial’s ethos, and our continued efforts to maintain high standards, provide world-class teaching, and support current and former students have again been recognised in UK and international rankings.

1st Franklin Allen elected to the British Academy Franklin Allen, Professor of Finance and Economics at Imperial College Business School, has been elected as a Fellow of the British Academy, the UK’s national academy for the humanities and social sciences. He was recognised for his research on issues relating to financial crises, corporate finance and financial innovation. Professor Allen joined the School in 2014 as one of the founders of the Brevan Howard Centre for Financial Analysis, and is the fourth academic from the School to be appointed to the Academy.

At the time of his election, Professor Allen said:

“ Financial instability and economic uncertainty are among the greatest global challenges we face. I hope this Fellowship will highlight the research of the Brevan Howard Centre in trying to make sense of the major financial challenges facing financial institutions, businesses and society.”

Jonathan Haskel awarded inaugural Indigo Prize In October, Professor Jonathan Haskel, the Business School’s Chair in Economics, and his team of researchers were named as one of the winners of the Indigo Prize. This new prize challenges entrants to consider how to measure economic activity in the 21st century.

The first and second places were awarded in an equal split between Professor Diane Coyle of Manchester University, and Professor Haskel’s team. The Imperial researchers were recognised for their proposal to extend GDP to measure intangible and free goods, as well as to measure the welfare of societies.

Times Higher Education World’s Most International Universities 2017 1st in the UK, 5th in the world

2nd

Financial Times Masters in Management 2017 2nd in the UK (excluding multiple campus schools), 14th in the world

3rd

Financial Times Masters in Finance Ranking 2017 3rd in the UK (excluding multiple campus schools), 12th in the world

3rd

Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2018 3rd in Europe, 8th in the world

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Events

Events

Over the last academic year, the Business School has played host to an array of events that have brought together students, alumni, academics, thought leaders and industry experts to discuss the most pressing issues in global business. Here are just some of the highlights…

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Oct

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Sep

Imperial Women’s Network Personal Finance workshop Over 50 alumni, students and guests attended a personal finance workshop hosted by the Imperial Women’s Network. Alumna Andrea Solana challenged the audience to assess their spending habits, attitudes towards money and personal financial goals in this interactive session focused on financial planning and investment principles.

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Annual Business School Alumni Celebration This event at the London Transport Museum was attended by over 150 alumni and staff from the Business School, who came together to reconnect, reminisce and learn about developments at the School. We were delighted to welcome alumni spanning four decades of the Business School and all programmes.

Stay in touch via: #OurImperial

Student Welcome Reception 2016 Imperial College Business School students from across all 17 programmes came together with faculty and staff for an evening of networking, dancing and dinosaurs at the Student Welcome Reception 2016, held at the Natural History Museum.

The venue, just down the road from Imperial College London, was chosen for its connections to the College: both were a part of Prince Albert’s vision for an area where arts and science would come together.

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Nov

Book Launch: The Man Who Knew: The Life & Times of Alan Greenspan The Brevan Howard Centre for Financial Analysis hosted the launch of Sebastian Mallaby’s biography of former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Knightsbridge. Mr Mallaby, a contributing columnist for The Washington Post, was joined on the panel by Lord Adair Turner, Chairman of the Institute for New Economic Thinking. The Man Who Knew was recognised as one of the books of the year by the Financial Times, The New York Times, Foreign Affairs and The Economist.

Mar

IB Knowledge March saw the launch of IB Knowledge, Imperial College Business School’s online hub for thought leadership articles written by its worldleading academics. Launched as part of the School’s #WhatTheFuture campaign, so far articles on the site have covered everything from the end of fossil fuels to what umbrellas can teach us about social data science. In this issue of Imperial Business, you will find just some of the articles that have been delighting and intriguing our audience in the months since.

Visit IB Knowledge at: www.imperial.ac.uk/businessschool/knowledge

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Feb

Activate recent graduates careers event The Business School hosted an evening of celebration, networking and career inspiration for recent graduates with a panel of successful alumni. The evening was designed to encourage career aspirations, and allow alumni to network as well as hearing updates from the School.

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Alumni Advisory Board and student networking event This drinks reception gave current students the opportunity to network with members of the Alumni Advisory Board and ask them questions about the wider alumni community and career development.

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Bank of England Brexit speech In the run up to the triggering of Article 50, Dr Ben Broadbent, Deputy Governor for Monetary Policy at the Bank of England, visited Imperial College Business School to deliver a speech on the effect of the UK’s vote to leave the EU on the pound. He said the drop in the value of sterling had given a short term boost to British exporters but added that stimulus was only likely to last until the UK actually leaves the EU and export costs increase.

Mar

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Mar

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Events

Events

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Mar

08 Feb

Alumni networking event in Dubai Head of Alumni Relations Erin Hallett welcomed alumni from across Imperial College London to this international networking event.

The vibrant and informal affair, giving alumni the opportunity to meet up and share experiences, was just one of several international alumni events to have taken place this year: others were held in Rome, Milan, Vancouver and Singapore.

Mobilising Business, Acting on Health The Business School’s annual conference brought together over 100 delegates – business leaders from across industry as well as leading academics – to drive the agenda on future health challenges. Topics covered included the potential impact of future health needs, new models for funding health technology innovation, and what skills are needed within business and where the leadership will come from.

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Dean’s Graduation Reception Acting Dean Nelson Phillips welcomed students and staff to Chelsea Old Town Hall for the annual Dean’s Graduation Reception. It was an exclusive event to celebrate students who had made a significant contribution to the Business School, as well as those who were recognised on the Dean’s List or had won an award.

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Alumni Weekend The Alumni Weekend saw over 1,000 Imperial College alumni return to campus to celebrate all things Imperial during the cross-college Imperial Festival. The Business School hosted a special afternoon tea for alumni, giving them the chance to enjoy a glass of bubbly, tea, and cakes.

May

You can read more about the 2017 annual conference on page 25

Stay in touch via: #OurImperial

24 Apr

It’s Not You, It’s Me: Is Wealth Management Dumping Private Bankers?

Attended by alumni and guests, this panel event saw expert speakers discuss the challenges and developments facing the private banking sector, including the impact financial technology is having on its business models. The panel included Alice Kletskaia, Senior Relationship Manager at UBS, and Huy Nguyen Trieu, CEO of the Disruptive Group.

May

Stay in touch via: #OurImperial

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May

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May

GameChangers: An Event about Business, Technology and Sports After more than half a year’s preparation, the School’s second student-led conference was held in May. Welcoming 20 panellists and 100 attendees, the event addressed the challenges and opportunities facing startups and industry leaders at the intersection of sports, media and technology. The high-profile attendees, including representatives of IMG, UFC and NFL, shared their strategies for engaging target audiences in our omnichannel digital age.

Centre Launch: The Centre for Health Economics & Policy Innovation The School’s newest research centre, the Centre for Health Economics & Policy Innovation, was launched with a day of talks and debates.

The conference brought together leading health economists and health management scholars from around the world. They heard talks from leading academics, European health ministers, and members of international organisations, civil society and business.

You can read more about the Centre for Health Economics & Policy Innovation, and the work of its faculty and research staff, on pages 25 to 31

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10 years of European Research Council funding Professor Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, President of the European Research Council (ERC), visited Imperial for a special event marking 10 years of ERC-supported research at the College. Imperial has been one of the top beneficiaries of the ERC’s excellence-based funding: since 2007, the council has invested €160 million in the College, supporting more than 100 grants across the Business School and other faculties.

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To Build Walls or Bridges: The Path to a New Economic Nirvana On the first anniversary of the UK’s vote to leave the European Union, this AIMA (All India Management Association) and Imperial College conference brought together business and political leaders.

Organised by the Gandhi Centre for Inclusive Innovation, the event featured speakers including UK Minister of State for Universities and Science Jo Johnson, former Trade Secretary Patricia Hewitt, Indian High Commissioner YK Sinha, AIMA President Sunil Munjal, and Business School economist Professor Tarun Ramadorai. Mr Johnson emphasised the UK’s extraordinary research capacity, while Mr Sinha drew attention to the fact the UK remains the preferred destination for Indian students.

Jun

Jun

This year, Imperial College Business School marks the 20th anniversary of its MSc Finance programme. “The programme was set up to provide a rigorous grounding in the theory of finance, and also provide the practical skills required for a successful career in the finance industry,” said Dr Lara Cathcart, the programme’s current Academic Director.

The programme’s success has been attested to in the many successful financial careers it has kick-started. Since its inception, it has sent hundreds of students on to positions in a wide range of global financial institutions: HSBC, J.P. Morgan, Deutsche Bank, KPMG, UBS, Credit Suisse, Barclays, Bank of China, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and many, many more.

As it enters its third decade, the programme’s continued success is reflected in its numbers: it ranked 12th in the world in the Financial Times Masters in Finance Ranking 2017, and was ranked second in the world for securing a career in investment banking by eFinancialCareers in 2016. At the same time, the size of annual cohorts has grown from 53 in 1997–98 to 92 in 2017–18, and this year’s intake hit gender parity, with 50 per cent of students being female (up from 40 per cent in 2016–17 and 28 per cent in 2015–16). “[The programme] does provide the right balance between theory and practice, and is cutting edge in its content,” said Dr Cathcart. “We are consistently seeking to improve our offering and equip our students with the latest skills required by the finance industry.” To this end the School regularly introduces new modules that incorporate the latest financial trends, while taking feedback and advice from its very active advisory board.

The 20th anniversary of the MSc Finance will be marked with a series of events being organised across the academic year. Keep an eye out for further announcements, and get in touch with the Alumni team for details via: alumni-business@imperial.ac.uk

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Profile

techniques aim to change the way people think about smoking and help them quit at their own pace.”

Profile Quit Genius: medics, alumni and entrepreneurs An app that puts cognitive behavioural therapy in your pocket began life on a Business School BSc Management programme – and now it’s a star of the App Store Written by: Rachael Davies

Just two years after its inception by a group of medics at Imperial College Business School, Quit Genius – the first smartphone app to offer personalised cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) to help smokers kick the habit – has been picked by Apple to be featured on its App Store.

The app opens the door to a low-cost treatment for millions of people looking to quit smoking. A number of successful pilot studies have already taken place within the NHS and a large UK health insurer (all reporting very high engagement and quit rates), and it is currently being assessed in a randomised trial comparing its effectiveness to face-to-face CBT. One of the key figures behind the app, co-founder and Chief Operating Officer Maroof Ahmed, clearly had an entrepreneurial mindset from a young age. By the time he was 17, he had already established his first product-based venture. By 20, he had created an education platform that now employs over 20 people and has a six figure annual turnover.

“Creating, managing, and expanding this business gave me a thrill that I’d never experienced,” he recalls. “I wanted to combine this

thrill with my passion for medicine to solve real-world problems and make a large-scale impact on the quality of people’s lives.” From this, Quit Genius was born.

Therapy via app Over two-thirds of smokers want to quit, but only around six per cent have access to the behavioural support they need, and just three per cent are successful.

With smoking costing the NHS around £5.2 billion a year, and UK employers roughly £8.7 billion, finding alternative treatment delivery systems that are more affordable, accessible and engaging is vital.

That’s where Quit Genius comes in. Developed in consultation with smokers and leading health experts, the app uses personalised behavioural support and gaming features that smokers can access whenever they have the urge to light up.

“Rather than an hour a week of talking to someone, Quit Genius offers bite-size chunks whenever you need them,” explains Ahmed.

“The game elements include fun challenges that are designed to encourage smokers to stay on track, while the cognitive behavioural

IN BRIEF

Digital Therapeutics established in 2015 Quit Genius launched in January 2017 Supported by Wayra (part of Telefonica) and Merck Sharp & Dohme Has been covered by Wired, the European Medical Journal, TechCrunch, MailOnline, the London Evening Standard and Metro

Where it all began Imperial College medical graduates Maroof Ahmed, Yusuf Sherwani, Sarim Siddiqui, Mohammed Muntasir, Sheeraz Iqbal and Abdulrahman El-Hilly began work on Quit Genius in 2015. The idea stemmed from a research project investigating how games can change health behaviour. They completed the project as part of an Intercalated BSc programme in Management at the Business School during their medical degrees.

The Intercalated BSc gave the entrepreneurs a great platform to launch their health-tech startup. “It provided an overview of important topics that we put to use when starting up our company, Digital Therapeutics,” explains Ahmed.

“The modules on entrepreneurship, marketing, and accounting were super useful. We also enjoyed being in the environment of the Business School where we could connect and network with likeminded individuals.”

Ahmed, Sherwani and Siddiqui graduated as doctors in March 2017 but have put their clinical careers on hold to pursue Quit Genius full time. “Most academic projects end when the study is published.

But for us, this was personal – we felt emotionally and professionally invested,” Ahmed says. And they’re growing too: in October they hired another Business School graduate, Aline Kfouri, as the company’s Growth Marketer.

Achieving international exposure “Quit Genius was launched in January this year, and the response so far has been incredible,” says Ahmed. “The app’s user base has been growing exponentially and it has just been featured on ‘New Apps We Love’ by Apple on the App Store in five countries – the UK, Netherlands, Sweden, Finland and Norway – as well as in the health and fitness charts in 33 countries.

“A key milestone for us was securing our first round of funding from Fortune 500 companies such

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as Telefonica and Merck Sharp & Dohme (MSD), as well as a number of notable angel investors including the ex-Chief Executive of AXA Global Health.”

Dr Junaid Bajwa, Executive Director of Healthcare Services at MSD, said, “The scale of their ambition with Quit Genius, to spearhead a new industry for ‘digital medicines’, is laudable and necessary.”

The app has also received several awards, including winning the Velocity Health accelerator programme run by Wayra UK and MSD, and the regional Pitch@ Palace 8.0 competition run by the Duke of York.

The key to success With a strong background in clinical research, the team understand the importance of building a robust evidence base and have dedicated a lot of time to implementing their research strategy. In 2016, a study examining the evidence base behind Quit Genius was published in the peer-reviewed Journal of

“It has just been featured on ‘New Apps We Love’ by Apple on the App Store in five countries, as well as in the health and fitness charts in 33 countries”

Medical Internet Research.

This year has seen the launch of a randomised trial comparing the app against face-to-face CBT. “Building this evidence base will not only help us drive adoption across the NHS but many other markets across the world,” explains Ahmed.

Together, the team are committed to developing costeffective and evidence-led digital therapeutic interventions to reduce the burden of chronic disease worldwide. They are already working with a number of large corporate companies, including O2 and CareTech, but are looking to partner with more employers to offer Quit Genius to their employees.

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According to Maroof, apps could eventually be developed to assist in the treatment of other addictions: “Our mission is to revolutionise how behavioural support is delivered worldwide. We want to create a platform for personalised cognitive behavioural therapy – not just to tackle smoking, but other addictions, and to help people manage their mental health.”

Quit Genius is available to download for free from the App Store and Google Play.

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Finance

Artificial intelligence is changing the face of finance Algorithms will be a boon to efficiency and competition in the finance industry, but could also harbour catastrophic threats Written by: Professor Marcin Kacperczyk

For better or worse, artificial intelligence (AI) has long been hailed as a symbol of the future.

However, in many ways, the age of AI is already upon us. From Google to gaming, early versions of the technology are becoming more readily integrated into our daily lives. It is therefore no great surprise that AI has also found its way into an area where the speed and accuracy of digital calculations by a computer can far outweigh anything a human can do: financial trading.

Given the huge amount of data to be analysed and measured, the use of digital technology and algorithms has become mandatory in the finance world. AI has infiltrated everything from trading to customer service to regulation, and this dominance will only become more widespread as technologies improve and possibilities increase.

The sheer volume of data the financial industry was producing – and the need to analyse and act upon it as efficiently as possible – led to the development of computer-based algorithms. Banks and individual traders began to rely upon the data-crunching capacity of these algorithms and, as technology developed, they began to replace the traders themselves.

Automated trading now accounts for roughly 75 per cent of all financial market volume.

Thanks to this algorithmic technology, which now includes aspects of artificial intelligence, startups and individuals have started trading in a market that was once the sole domain of big banks and investment firms. Opening up the market can be positive: allowing more players to enter lowers transaction costs by reducing the human workforce, and increases monitoring

75% Automated trading’s share of financial market volume

abilities. However, larger companies can utilise the same technology and exploit it to their advantage using larger capital and, as they are often located closer to servers, a faster response time.

Potential risks and benefits However, while AI offers countless opportunities for greater efficiency in the finance industry, it also harbours potentially catastrophic threats. A huge windfall or crash can happen in milliseconds. AI-powered high frequency trading can rapidly destabilise the market and lead to liquidity, resulting in a potential reluctance to trade by the rest of the market.

This is reminiscent of the 2010 flash crash in the US market, when prices of some individual securities dropped close to zero and the US regulator was forced to void some of the trades.

Using computers to analyse data and suggest actions based on trends and patterns has its benefits – a computer can work a lot faster than the human brain and see patterns not otherwise detectable. It isn’t affected by the emotional, interpersonal or political issues that can plague a human workforce and lead to unpredictability.

On the flip side, unlike their human counterparts, computers are susceptible to glitches, viruses, hacking, and other data protection and stability issues.

But while these technologies come with increased risk, they also offer new ways of fighting threats. More data means more evidence available to trace crimes such as insider trading and hacking. In fact, AI is becoming increasingly important in the fight

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against fraud. On top of cybersecurity, it is used to find anomalous transactions, track individual trading patterns, and follow patterns in the wider market. AI software can detect criminal transactions in a fraction of the time it might take a human, and without the risk of human error, which can save millions in potential fines and human capital. AI is also used in ‘regulation technology’ to address the new regulatory controls put in place after the 2008 financial crash. Big banks have used similar technology in modelling, scenario analysis and forecasting, saving big dollars and reducing the human workforce in this area.

Despite this, the use of AI doesn’t eliminate all human elements. While the software itself behaves according to its programming, it still needs to be programmed by somebody. An error in this initial development could have major ramifications, as could the potential of a hack, software glitch, or even malicious interference.

As artificial intelligence becomes more sophisticated, it becomes increasingly challenging for regulators to maintain data security and the integrity of the market. The technology is changing at such a rapid rate that laws and policies need to be agile enough to keep up and prevent major market movements as a result of algorithmic glitches, but at the same time allow innovation in the industry.

The job market This all leads to a question crucial to business schools: if trading and regulatory jobs are being taken by AI systems, what will happen to the job market? Put simply, the role of human intervention will most certainly change, but this does not mean all jobs will be automated.

Technology has both displaced and increased jobs in many industries, and finance is no different. There is a growing need for people with cross-disciplinary skills to bridge the gap between technology and labour: people who can build the programmes and the business models

“As artificial intelligence becomes more sophisticated, it becomes increasingly challenging for regulators to maintain data security and the integrity of the market”

that surround them. As a result, partnerships between engineering, computing and business faculties around the globe are strengthening.

AI technology also offers fresh opportunities for innovative startups. London is the fintech capital of the world, so Imperial’s location and cross-disciplinary expertise make it the perfect place for researching this fast-growing industry – and producing the graduates who will go on to lead these new companies and take on these new roles.

Artificial intelligence will be an instigator for change. Large financial institutions and big banks may face a brain drain as innovators move to startups, which will inevitably lead to new services from the big firms. Any new technology or innovation will always bring challenges – but the possibilities in this case may well revolutionise the whole industry.

To keep up to date with the latest analysis of the biggest issues facing the world from Imperial College Business School’s top academics, visit IB Knowledge: imprl.biz/mag-knowledge

About the author Professor Marcin Kacperczyk is Professor of Finance at Imperial College Business School.

He received his PhD from the University of Michigan.

His research primarily investigates the impact of private information on financial markets, and has been published in Econometrica, The Journal of Finance, and The Quarterly Journal of Economics.

As a recent recipient of a European Research Council grant, his future research will examine how information flow is related to market structure in order to understand the mechanisms that drive economic decisions. Specifically, the project will use the contexts of illegal insider trading and household finance to lay out the micro foundations for informed trading in investment and corporate settings.

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Finance

Boom, gloom and investment decisions As surprising as it may seem, decisions made about where and when to open hotels reflect the wider tendency of investors to follow the herd Written by: Dr Renรกta Kosovรก

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What drives investment during the good times? Is it astute financial advice? A deep understanding of the market? Confidence that a certain product is right and timely?

Or – as many people suspect – are investors carried away by a rush of money and vulnerable to so-called ‘herding’ – imitating the decisions or actions of the others? And if so, how do such investments made in the good times subsequently perform?

In the US, a hotel room earns about $53 a night. Using data on hotel revenues and other detailed insights into the US hotel market, we’ve shed light on the wider phenomenon of herding. In other words, do investors tend to copy other investors’ business decisions during economic booms?

Why did we look at hotels? The available information has several benefits: unlike commonly used financial databases that typically offer only information aggregated at company level, our data give specific details about revenues and characteristics of every single hotel.

But there’s another significant advantage: the information covers more than 30,000 branded hotels in the US as well as independent facilities, so the results show prevailing behavioural trends, rather than the good or bad decisions of a few companies.

In addition, we have detailed information about each hotel: from location to when the investment was made, through to who owns it, and whether it’s economy, luxury or somewhere in the middle. This, combined with reports on how well these hotels perform sometimes decades after they were built, allowed us to drill down to an extraordinary level of detail that just isn’t possible in other sectors, where information isn’t always available at such a granular level.

Herding behaviour Many commentators, as well as finance specialists, have long suspected investors tend to follow the herd when making decisions. Our research, using large scale data analyses, proves this. Hotels built when the economy is booming consistently

“Investors do make rash decisions and follow the herd when times are good, without taking into account a clear business case for their choice” underperform in the market for years after the investment was made: on average, earnings are around six per cent worse.

There’s a strong tally between the precise time the investment was made and its performance: the closer to the boom it was built, the worse it fares. And this is true of hotels whether they are high end or budget, or whether they are owned by independent investors or form part of a chain.

There’s also a strong correlation between poor performance and the local rather than national economic conditions.

In fact, we discovered expansion and investment decisions made in a buoyant local climate actually underperform for far longer than any investments made in a national upturn. This is probably because the difference between the local and national economic performance is more pronounced.

Sometimes these hotels can still be poor earners even 30 years after they were built.

So are these results consistent with herding or is something else at play? In our research, we’ve accounted for many other factors that could explain differences in performance, such as hotel location, different types of hotels, and overall market characteristics.

We were also careful to eliminate various alternative explanations.

We’ve allowed, for instance, for a glut of hotels in the same spot, as competition (especially

among hotels of the same quality) can play a part.

But it still doesn’t explain why hotels built in a boom and across different segments perform worse than the others. Given the context of the hotel industry, we’ve also eliminated potential ‘imitative thinking’ or the herding that often occurs among professional investment analysts. They tend not to stick their necks out too far in their analyses, whereas hoteliers generally aren’t worried how their investment decisions affect others.

Our research clearly shows investors do make rash decisions and follow the herd when times are good, without taking into account a clear business case for their choice.

Imitation and underperformance Why do such investments consistently underperform? It may be investors have done their due diligence, but have then not heeded advice, and pushed ahead anyway, encouraged by a rush of money around them. It may be a certain type of hotel – budget or five star – just isn’t right for a certain type of market, no matter how buoyant the market appears. Or it may be investors don’t understand very specific conditions: is a hotel on the right side of a street for instance, or close enough to local facilities? Are there enough potential qualified staff on hand?

You can apply these results more broadly to many other business decisions. Overall, our research implies that repeating whatever others are doing, just because they are doing it, generally doesn’t pay off. It’s important not to be swayed by what’s going on around you, whether it’s new hotels springing up, new products launched, or expansions into different markets. Critically, you might not have all the right information to hand. And, in this case, imitation (or following the pack) isn’t automatically the right course. A new product or venture needs to be right for the market and for the company itself. Businesses need to be careful of following each other into new markets – technology or renewables for

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instance – without doing their due diligence.

Companies and investors need better reasons to throw their money in the pot than simply that others are investing and expanding in the field. They may have misinterpreted the reasons for pushing ahead – at their peril. But the good news is that, if businesses are aware of the risks, hopefully they will always keep their business focus and strategic thinking on – and thus be less likely to make risky investments.

To keep up to date with the latest analysis of the biggest issues facing the world from Imperial College Business School’s top academics, visit IB Knowledge: imprl.biz/mag-knowledge

About the author Dr Renáta Kosová is Associate Professor of Economics at Imperial College Business School, and Programme Director of the MSc in Economics & Strategy for Business.

She joined the School in 2013, and has since been elected the Chair of the Business School’s Diversity Committee.

Her research concentrates on applied industrial organisation, and international economics and business. This article is based on “Boom and Gloom”, an article she coauthored with Paul Povel, Giorgo Sertsios and Praveen Kumar, published in The Journal of Finance in 2016.

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Finance

The secret of crowdfunding’s success No longer just for bands looking to tour, or for startups lacking access to financing, crowdfunding has become a way to sound out the market for innovative businesses Written by: Dr Katrin Tinn

Crowdfunding has enjoyed a rapid rise among startups, generating a new path for entrepreneurs to become an overnight success. Once a niche and assumed risky practice, crowdfunding sites such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo provide a platform on which entrepreneurs, companies and artists raise funds for creative projects, ranging from disruptive new gadgets to contemporary dance performances. Investors, individual or institutional, can buy products and donate to projects.

Over the past 20 years, crowdfunding has evolved from a small personal funding platform – it was, for instance, used to fund British rock band Marillion’s reunion tour in 1997 – to a comprehensive validation tool for startups, corporates and artists. Funds raised from crowdfunding last year passed venture capital financing for the first time. The World Bank forecasts global investment through crowdfunding platforms will reach $96 billion by 2025. Goldman Sachs said in a report published in 2015 that crowdfunding was “potentially the most disruptive of all the new models of finance”.

While people commonly think financial constraints are the main reason entrepreneurs turn to crowdfunding, recent empirical evidence suggests otherwise. In a recent research paper, myself and co-author Professor Gilles Chemla developed a model to understand why rewardbased crowdfunding is so efficient.

We emphasised that, in addition to providing funding, reward-based crowdfunding platforms play an important role in enabling startups to learn about demand for their product or service before making investment decisions.

Pre-selling through crowdfunding platforms can be a credible consumer survey; it provides new and valuable information about future sales prospects. Because of that, a startup can hedge its bets by only developing a project after it observes sufficiently high consumer demand — and save on the investment cost if demand is low.

Where uncertainty is rewarded This argument explains why firms that develop consumer products involving a high degree of demand uncertainty, such as gadgets and computer games, have the most to gain from crowdfunding. After all, high prior uncertainty implies crowdfunding campaigns are likely to both fail and raise funds multiple times over the target with a high probability. Yet as of January 2017, 61 per cent of the $2.5 billion raised through Kickstarter was collected by startups that produced tech, design or gaming products.

In our research, we showed that learning about demand mitigates the well-known moral hazard problem, whereby startups may be tempted to divert the funds they raise through crowdfunding platforms, instead of delivering the products as promised. If a startup can see high consumer demand for their product during their crowdfunding campaign, they are more likely to push ahead with its development, expecting it to sell well. Indeed, we showed the higher the funds raised during a short crowdfunding campaign, the fewer incentives there are for entrepreneurs to divert them.

Our model suggests certain project characteristics can incentivise entrepreneurs to deliver: investors should be more confident when

Kickstarter

61% of funds raised went to tech, design or gaming products (as of January 2017)

65% of projects delivered on time

9% failed to deliver their rewards

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£ £

campaigns have ambitious targets, are short, and are on prominent third-party platforms.

While demand uncertainty itself is sufficient to create value, startups can learn additional things about consumer preferences from a crowdfunding campaign — such as whether a buyer prefers a red or blue watch, say, or which new levels they like in a smartphone game – which creates even more value.

High profile failure versus long term success Crowdfunding success can also open access to venture capital and angel investment; a company’s participation in crowdfunding may alleviate the moral hazard and asymmetric information problems that prevent a firm obtaining financing from traditional outside financiers. Indeed, there are many examples of firms doing so, such as Kinsa, which raised about $140,000 for a ‘smart’ ear thermometer via Indiegogo, after which it received multiple seed rounds and a $9.6 million Series A from a group of investors including Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield and Byers.

Investing can still be risky. There have been high-profile crowdfunding flops, such as Central Standard Timing, which raised $1 million on Kickstarter to produce the “world’s thinnest watch” before filing for bankruptcy in 2016. Because entrepreneurs receive funds from a crowdfunding campaign in advance of the completion of their product, there is a risk investors will not receive their desired product.

Yet, cases of failure and fraud are small in number when compared with projects that deliver. Analysis by Professor Ethan Mollick of the Wharton School found that 65 per cent of

“A startup can hedge its bets by only developing a project after it observes sufficiently high consumer demand” Kickstarter projects delivered on time, while only nine per cent failed to deliver their rewards.

Our model highlights why a low failure rate is unsurprising. The opportunity to learn about demand itself creates powerful enough incentives and excitement for entrepreneurs to prefer to invest and deliver, instead of resorting to short-term gains by diverting funds.

To keep up to date with the latest analysis of the biggest issues facing the world from Imperial College Business School’s top academics, visit IB Knowledge: imprl.biz/mag-knowledge

About the author Dr Katrin Tinn is an Assistant Professor of Finance at Imperial College Business School. Her research focuses on applied theory in financial economics and information economics. Her particular research interests include interaction between financial markets and technological innovation, financing innovation, economic growth, fintech, and quantitative trading.

Her research has been published in the American Economic Review.

She is a member of the American Economic Association, Econometric Society, Western Finance Association and European Finance Association.

In addition to academic positions, she has worked in commercial banking and asset management, the European Central Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

She gained her PhD in Economics from the London School of Economics.

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Imperial Business Analytics

How Imperial students are fighting cyber-attacks and predicting laws Imperial Business Analytics’ Data Spark project is the perfect fusion of business utility and practical education Written by: Ruth Saunders

At Imperial College Business School we spend an awful lot of time talking about how the combination of our faculty’s expertise, our corporate collaborations and our position within Imperial College London means we can fuse real-world business experience with cutting-edge scientific insight. And we go on about it because it’s true. Business School students have the opportunity to develop their skills through a unique combination of resources they simply wouldn’t get anywhere else.

One such opportunity is Data Spark, a scheme jointly developed by Imperial Business Analytics and KPMG, where students get consulting experience with business leaders through offering data analytics services. This scheme is now being offered to KPMG clients and other businesses, such as Thomson Reuters and BT Research. Students across MBA and MSc programmes can apply for the scheme: in 2017, over 90 students applied and 40 were awarded places.

Director of Imperial Business Analytics, Dr Mark Kennedy, described Data Spark as an opportunity to combine data science and consulting skills: “As students demonstrate and extend their skills in projects of significant strategic importance to the companies who sponsor [them], they also learn consulting skills.”

Working alongside academic and business mentors, students on the six-week consulting project gain practical business analytics experience, while the business leaders who offer up their data get access to the School’s sought-after expertise. Student participant and MSc Business Analytics student Christina Tatli described the project to the Financial Times as a service where businesses can “check-in” data for analysis.

Mazhar Hussain, Director at KPMG Digital and Analytics said, “The ability to solve complex business problems using analytics has become a competitive differentiator between average and high-performing organisations. This has made it critical for businesses to understand their data and have the ability to interrogate it to make significant business decisions.

“This is forcing organisations to become more datadriven in their approach. There is growing demand for organisations to be able to take a hypothesis about their business – whether it is an opportunity or challenge – and test it with agility in a safe environment.”

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“ Both KPMG and the client were thrilled with our work – with the client very kindly offering to hire us all on the spot!”

One of the first Data Spark projects, run in collaboration with KPMG, saw students investigate the commercial applications of a telematics driver app. The data came from a small startup and was drawn from across 1.4 million driver miles, tracking the speed, acceleration and location of cars.

By analysing this large data set, the team were able to show a simple mobile phone app could be just as powerful a tool as a traditional black box recorder.

Since then, students from the Business School and across Imperial College have been providing top companies with data insights while building their own skillsets in data analytics – a sought-after skill across sectors.

Full-Time MBA student George Chatzaras was part of a team of MBA, MSc and MSc Computing Science students who partnered with KPMG and BT Research to find new ways of identifying and analysing cyber-attacks. He said, “It is really a great opportunity to be able to work on real life projects with a leading company such as KPMG. It was also very interesting to see how the dynamics of a very diverse team change: a Data Spark team is usually comprised of computer or software engineers, Business Analytics students, and purely business people; it’s interesting to see how these different team members interact and fill the different gaps according to their talents.”

Imperial Business Analytics uses leading analytical methods in big data to help solve complex issues and create new value. Are you interested in finding out more? If so, visit imprl.biz/mag-data-spark

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Highlights from Data Spark 2017 What will the law be?

Thomson Reuters wanted to understand the science behind the legal data that passes through government and policymaking bodies. The ultimate aim of this team project was to identify and model features involved in the creation of new laws.

Using baseline prediction and visualisations, a group of students from MSc Finance, MSc Business Analytics, MSc Management and the Full-Time MBA successfully identified the likelihood of future laws from the UK’s 2015–16 parliamentary session.

Using data science techniques, the team provided commercially insightful information to Thomson Reuters on the key factors involved in predicting outcomes. They also conducted a sentiment analysis of public opinion and interest to report on the link between news coverage or social media activity and new regulations.

Dr Tharindi Hapuarachchi, Technical Partnerships Manager at Thomson Reuters Labs, said they were “impressed with how quickly the students were able to understand and tackle a problem in a new domain, and deliver insights within a few weeks.”

Why are there so many managers?

A group of students, in collaboration with KPMG, provided key people management insights to the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC).

The bank had noticed an increase in the number of managers across the organisation – a phenomenon known as “a managerial drift”.

They knew this was the result of an increase in both promotion and retention, but didn’t know why those two things were happening.

“They knew this was happening,” Christina Tatli told the Financial Times, “but now they know exactly where in the organisation it is taking place, which makes the issue possible to target.”

Robert Carlyle, Senior Director of Strategic Workforce Management at RBC, told the

Financial Times, “People analytics is an excellent way to identify and drive good performance.”

Team member and Full-Time MBA student Suzy McClintock described the project as “no small undertaking in just six weeks… The icing on the cake was of course that both KPMG and the client were thrilled with our work – both the presentation and the final report – with the client very kindly offering to hire us all on the spot!”

Where do all the cyber-attacks come from?

Working with BT Research and KPMG, a team of students from MSc Business Analytics, FullTime MBA and MSc Computing Science developed a new way of combatting cyber-attacks.

According to Dr David Birch, the team’s academic mentor, the main challenge facing those attempting to identify and put a stop to attacks such as the WannaCry ransomware cryptoworm (which infected 200,000 computers in more than 150 countries) is the sheer volume of information they have to deal with.

“Identifying and analysing cyberattacks requires sifting through vast amounts of data to find anomalies,” he said. “The team’s work shows the potential of visualisation and user classification to understand and identify anomalies.”

Working with a data set of 18 billion daily events (of which about 0.000075 per cent were cyberattacks), the team’s breakthrough was to identify standard behaviour between groups of users or ‘families’ and filter it out, leaving a much smaller data set of unexpected behaviour. By visually representing this data, the team was able to map out changes in network connectivity and identify compromised users.

For George Chatzaras the project was “challenging”, but, he said, “we are very happy to have contributed to the research and thought-processes behind facing these threats.”

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Profile

Profile Ileana Stigliani: designer, thinker and Lego master Imperial College Business School’s Assistant Professor of Design and Innovation on the importance of design thinking Written by: Helena Pozniak

On a shelf in her office, Dr Ileana Stigliani has a box of Lego bricks. Beside it sits an award – a recognition of her innovative teaching of business students. More than simply asking them to play with building blocks, she sends her MBA class out into the real world to teach them about the importance of empathy.

“If I had a magic wand, I would introduce more empathy into the business world,” she says.

In one session, students imagine themselves blind or with a disability. They then begin to navigate South Kensington’s museums in a bid to find ways to improve visitors’ experience.

From their research, they can prototype potential solutions using Lego.

This is design thinking – a driving passion of Ileana’s work. This means putting yourself in your customer’s shoes to gain a deep understanding of what they need or want. It draws on a creative approach traditionally used in industrial design and lends itself to solving complex human problems. It requires deep seated empathy and it can throw up unexpected solutions. “It’s not a clean, linear process,” she says. “It means being messy and experimental.”

And it’s something she believes business students can’t ignore. “What can we learn from the creative process? What can we distil from it and apply to solve business problems? How can we learn to become more innovative?”

Touchy feely Traditional businesses don’t typically foster empathetic engagement with customers.

“Big organisations are run on the lines of efficiency, predictability and stability. This is at odds with what being creative means.” In her classes Ileana will point to the likes of Procter & Gamble and BMW as companies that have embraced design thinking to come up with novel approaches, services and products.

Design thinking has nothing to do with data driven analyses, efficiencies and cost cutting, and it’s not relevant for anything without a human angle, she says. One of her business students

once told her empathy meant weakness, but most of them are eager to learn the subtleties of this “touchy feely” field. “We’ve gone a long way since then. But this is still something that many students find tough to grasp. I tell them we’re giving them a competitive advantage over students from other business schools.”

Delving deeper into examining the creative process, her research has led her to study the emergence of service design. This spells opportunity for savvy business graduates as management consultancies scramble to acquire or build service design departments internally, run like startups. It’s a burgeoning sector and it largely began in the UK. But what is it precisely? “Service design didn’t exist until around 2000. It’s the application of design thinking to develop new services or experiences.” Good examples might include how health support services are developed to cut through the clutter to concentrate on what users need. Because the industry is so new, it lends itself to academic study. “Particularly how it’s been communicated and legitimised by pioneering players of this century.”

A design for life Design has intrigued and attracted Ileana since she was a young girl. Her mother had a great eye for good design and Ileana grew up dreaming of a career possibly in interior design, inspired by the elegant greats of Italian furniture. But in a family of accountants, she was won over by pragmatism and went on to take a business degree, which she followed up with a doctorate in management at Bocconi University in Milan.

Her research led her to a transformative year in Boston, where she shadowed an influential service and product design firm, Continuum.

She cites the agency’s founder and compatriot Gianfranco Zaccai as one of her greatest role models and mentors. “He gave me access to what became for me a career defining experience. He was aware of the potential that design could have within business.”

IN BRIEF

Born in Italy PhD from Bocconi University, Milan Formerly a visiting professor at MIT Sloan School of Management Received the 2016 Imperial College Business School Teaching Excellence Award for Innovation in Teaching

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Sometimes her students are treated to talks from the pioneers and superstars of service design – the likes of Chris Downs who co-founded the UK’s first service design agency, Livework, in 2001. She was overjoyed earlier this year to welcome back two of her students who’ve co-founded a design thinking consultancy. While not every business graduate will enter the field, an awareness of its importance could give them a head start.

Just as Ileana embraced the international vibe of Boston, she relishes life in London. “Life here offers many opportunities, professionally and personally. You feel you’re right in the middle of things.” Brexit left her heartbroken. “I initially felt rejected by the country where I’ve lived – and paid taxes – for the last eight years. But things haven’t changed here at Imperial, it’s still business as usual.”

“ If I had a magic wand, I would introduce more empathy into the business world” Being mindful Ileana has no shortage of future research projects in mind – she’d give her eye teeth to get inside a large management consultancy to witness how design thinking is bedding down on the inside. “They are two completely different professional cultures – the likelihood of a culture clash is extremely high.”

A few years ago, she found the solitary pressures of academic life to be so intense she felt obliged to counterbalance it with activities that allowed her mind to switch off and unwind.

“Meditating is very important for innovation. It also keeps everything manageable. It doesn’t necessarily mean sitting in a chair chanting – you can meditate whilst doing the dishes or walking in a park. It’s more about being mindful.” And it might even find its way into a design thinking module for business students, she hints.

If there’s anything she could urge her students to pay more attention to as they embark upon or graduate from a business degree, it’s what impact they would like to have on the world.

What qualities will they need beyond the doors of the Business School? “A curious, inquisitive and open mind. Being collaborative. Being able to balance empathy and intuition, but not forgetting analysis. Being open to framing failures as learning opportunities. Being comfortable with ambiguity. Not being afraid of taking risks and making mistakes.” Qualities at the heart of every successful business creative.

The Imperial MBA Creating leaders with the skills to drive sustainable business advantage through the fusion of business and technology

Executive MBA Full-Time MBA Global Online MBA Weekend MBA Explore our MBA programmes and find the right one for you by joining us at an international fair, on-campus information session or online webinar

“The MBA has been mind-blowing in how it has opened up a world of opportunities to advance my career and achieve my career goals. The Imperial community is fabulous, they make you feel welcome and are always there to help you when you need it.”

Toyin Ajayi Global Online MBA 2017–19

Find out more: imprl.biz/events-mba

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Centre for Health Economics & Policy Innovation Over the past year, Imperial College Business School’s newest research centre has been at the forefront of exploring how business can meet the world’s biggest health challenges

In April, industry experts and delegates attended Imperial College Business School’s second annual conference, ‘Mobilising Business, Acting on Future Health’, to explore what needs to be done to improve global health in the 21st century. Welcoming delegates to the event, Professor James Barlow, Chair in Technology and Innovation Management, said, “Providing affordable, sustainable healthcare to all is one of the biggest global challenges today.”

Dr Mark Britnell, Chairman and Senior Partner of the Global Health Practice at KPMG, delivered the keynote speech, covering “the good, the bad and the ugly of the global health challenge”. He argued, “If you want to protect the state, you can do it for less. If you want to improve costs, you need to improve stakeholder alignment.” He added people can expect to live an extra four years if the conflicting healthcare incentives, behaviours, structures and policies for patient care are aligned.

Dr Laure de Preux, Assistant Professor at Imperial College Business School and CoChair of the conference, said the event “clearly highlighted the importance of partnerships

between the different actors of the health sector to reduce inefficiencies [and] improve the R&D process, as well as the delivery of innovation”.

Her sentiments were echoed by attendees, including Imperial alumni Mary Weale (who described the conference as “an excellent networking event”) and Sasha Karkusevic (who praised the opportunity to “work with new and existing colleagues on such an important topic.”)

“ Providing affordable, sustainable healthcare to all is one of the biggest global challenges today”

The business of health These global challenges are a central concern of the School’s latest research centre: the Centre for Health Economics & Policy Innovation. “Health is a very emotive subject, but it goes beyond preventing and curing diseases and illnesses,” explained Professor Franco Sassi, Director of the Centre. “Our work covers the economic dimension of global health challenges. This includes the efficiency and sustainability of healthcare systems around the world, as well as policies that can improve people’s health by changing what they eat and drink, the air they breathe, and their social and economic conditions.”

The Centre’s faculty have, between them: led the world’s largest collaborative research programme on innovation in healthcare infrastructure; designed and conducted the world’s largest trial of telehealth technology; and led a large international programme of public health modelling and evaluation. They have worked with or for the UK Government, the OECD, the World Health Organisation, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the European Commission. They include an MBE, a Fellow of the British Academy, and a member of Portugal’s Health Parliament. And one of them likes techno.

The Centre is a melting pot of ideas and research into the economic side of global health challenges. Across the next six pages we let some of its leading academics tell you about their work and what it means for healthcare around the world.

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Health Economics and Policy

Do competition and choice improve healthcare?

Introducing competition to healthcare systems is a heavily politicised issue, particularly in the UK, but users do not benefit if the market is locked by a top-down authority Written by: Professor Carol Propper

All healthcare systems around the world are grappling with the same problem: how to meet public expectations and deliver high quality care amid rising demand and costs. Making better use of markets to deliver healthcare is one of the biggest challenges of our age. Can we reform systems that have traditionally been heavily controlled and regulated, and which offer patients and users little choice?

Modernising healthcare has obvious appeal: competition in the rest of the economy is generally beneficial. One approach is to make it easier for people to choose where they receive treatment. Reforms such as these are often viewed with suspicion – as covert attempts to privatise healthcare.

But I believe competition brings many benefits. Healthcare markets are no more complex than others – financial markets or insurance, for instance. People may need help and guidance in making choices, such as picking the right pension or policy, but the market doesn’t benefit from being locked by a topdown authority. The same logic can

be applied – with caution – to the healthcare industry.

Choice benefits patients In some countries, insurers compete against each other to offer healthcare. In others, the health system is funded by the public purse and all citizens are entitled to healthcare services.

Private insurance is limited, so there’s little competition between insurers to cover patients. But such a system can bring about competition between healthcare suppliers for consumers (i.e. the patients themselves).

Reforms in England have sought to increase competition between hospitals for public funds. The bottom line is that these improvements have benefited patients, but introducing more choice and competition also means the rules of the game need to be carefully designed and monitored.

Over 10 years ago, patients in England were allowed to choose where they could be treated as part of market reforms. As a result, they began to move towards hospitals that provided better

quality care: those with better survival results, lower rates of infection, and shorter waiting lists.

Patients, with the aid of their family doctor, broke free of the ‘postcode lottery’ that had tied them to whatever was offered locally.

At the same time, hospitals that performed well gained greater autonomy. This led to tangible increases in quality for no extra cost, and patients spending less time in hospital. In contrast to fears raised by many commentators, poorer and sicker patients do not appear to have lost out.

Autonomy at the margins The use of competition and choice in healthcare as a way to improve outcomes is probably a technical issue. The UK is seen as a leader in the way we have addressed issues of choice within a strongly taxed finance system and state provision.

But policies that introduce choice and competition become politicised very quickly. Competition is seen as privatisation, rather than harnessing forces to improve delivery.

I’m not suggesting we dismantle our tax-financed system or our strong commitment to equity in delivery of care. What I am proposing is that we allow providers of care to have more autonomy at the margins, and freedom to make decisions unfettered by bureaucratic control.

We know this is important.

The Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust in England, where many patients died unnecessarily, failed because it was trying to meet unrealistically high targets set centrally. Managers were so focused on meeting performance goals that they didn’t pay sufficient attention to the quality of care that was being delivered. Yet their local population still supported them, because they felt they had no choice.

Reform in Britain has become a political football, and initiatives to fund private suppliers – with public finance – have become confused with privatising the whole service – which is simply not the case.

This creates substantial political pushback, even though the private

~50% Share of cases brought to the FTC that are healthcare-related

15% Healthcare as a share of the US economy

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About the author Carol Propper is Professor of Economics at Imperial College Business School.

Her research interests focus on the impact of incentives on the quality of healthcare delivery and health system productivity; more widely, she looks at the design and consequences of incentives within the public sector, and the boundary between the state and private markets.

Before joining the Business School, she was Senior Economic Advisor to the NHS Executive on Regulation of the NHS Internal Market from 1993 to 1994, Co-Director of the Centre for the Analysis of Social Exclusion at the London School of Economics from 1997 to 2007, and Co-Director and Director of the Centre for Market and Public Organisation between 1998 and 2009.

sector has a role to play in most areas of healthcare.

Merger most horrid However, there’s never a free lunch in this game. If you are going to promote competition, you need to beware of monopolies, which are seldom in the public good and tend to entrench vested interests.

Just as mergers in the wider economy tend not to benefit the general public, neither do they in healthcare. In the US, for instance, about half the cases brought to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which protects consumers, are to do with healthcare. Given that healthcare represents 15 per cent of the economy, this is a substantial

“Policies that introduce choice and competition become politicised very quickly”

number. Therefore we need an authority that looks very carefully at mergers to assess whether or not they are in the public good.

In Europe, we have the Netherlands as an example to follow. Healthcare there isn’t such a politically charged topic, and for 20 years the Dutch have encouraged competition and choice in health insurance. They now also have 10 years’ experience of competition in delivery of healthcare.

In the UK, however, while there’s no evidence competition hasn’t been beneficial, we don’t yet know what the costs are. We need to promote competition more actively – even allowing patients to choose their own doctors, just as you’d

choose your own financial advisor – and allow reforms to bed in and run in the background before we can reap the long-term benefits.

To keep up to date with the latest analysis of the biggest issues facing the world from Imperial College Business School’s top academics, visit IB Knowledge: imprl.biz/mag-knowledge

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Health Economics and Policy

A special high-level meeting of the United Nations’ General Assembly in 2011 identified the epidemic of chronic diseases as a major global challenge, fuelled by unhealthy lifestyles that are progressively spreading within and across countries worldwide.

Tobacco smoking is still on the rise, the harmful use of alcohol and other addictive substances has been on the increase, and the quality of many people’s diets remains poor – even worsening – despite falling food prices and increased availability.

Technology and new forms of economic production have made

Business’s double bind on healthy consumption Businesses face a dilemma in meeting the conflicting pressures to both fuel and contain the rise of unhealthy lifestyles Written by: Professor Franco Sassi

us increasingly sedentary, and weight gain has been so rapid and widespread that obesity has become an epidemic among both children and adults.

Businesses and their marketing strategies in several industries – including food and beverage manufacturers – have been blamed for these lifestyle changes, and in many cases they have indeed played an active role in changing people’s behaviours for the worse. But some businesses are increasingly committed to finding solutions to today’s major public health challenges.

Increased health-consciousness An increased availability and awareness of health-related information, and an increased attention to lifestyles and their health consequences by the mass media, have contributed to

changing consumer preferences.

As a result, a thriving health and well-being industry has developed in recent years, driven by a growing consumer demand. This has provided, for instance, greater opportunities for leisure-time physical activity and healthy nutrition, which may have an impact on chronic health conditions such as obesity.

Government action, or simply the expectation of government action, can also stimulate businesses to engage in the promotion of healthy consumption and lifestyles. Government regulation may produce both direct and indirect effects on markets for health-related commodities, but governments are often reluctant to use regulation because of the complexity of the regulatory process, the enforcement costs involved, and the risk of confrontation with industries.

Where the expectation exists for government regulatory action, businesses may seek to pre-empt this through self-regulation and by co-operating with the government.

This has happened, for instance, with food advertising to children and with food labelling. In these areas, businesses have taken initiatives before most governments could implement formal regulatory measures. Industry self-regulation has the advantage of reducing enforcement costs but its effectiveness is a function of the buy-in of businesses and requires independent monitoring and evaluation to ensure it does provide a valid alternative to government regulation. Governments remain responsible for setting the goals and targets of self-regulation, in the public interest.

Balancing health and demand An area of special complexity is product reformulation, especially in the food and beverage industry.

In this case, businesses have to balance consumer demands – for taste and convenience for example – with the threats and opportunities involved in different types of government regulation.

Consumer demands may lead to a larger-than-desirable use

“Government action, or simply the expectation of government action, can stimulate businesses to engage in the promotion of healthy consumption”

of ingredients that may have negative health consequences in food manufacturing, such as salt, sugar and trans fats.

Governments may ban, or limit, the use of such ingredients, or simply threaten to do this in order to elicit an appropriate response from the relevant industries.

However, this form of regulation is not widely applicable in food manufacturing, and governments often prefer to use incentives to encourage businesses to reformulate less healthy products.

An example is the sugar tax announced in the March 2016 UK Budget, which is deliberately meant to incentivise beverage manufacturers to reduce the sugar content of their products.

An increasing number of governments have been using taxes and price regulation to give markets strong signals about the

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need for healthier production and consumption. The most forward-looking businesses are ready to take up the challenge and respond to the incentive. After the introduction of a tax on potentially unhealthy foods and beverages in Hungary, a study estimated 40 per cent of manufacturers reformulated their products.

A further example is allowing the use of nutritional or health claims, which can be used by businesses to advertise their reformulation efforts, within an appropriate regulatory framework.

The decline in fat consumption accelerated in the United States, and fibre consumption increased, after the US Food and Drug Administration allowed food manufacturers to make claims about the health benefits of their products. Regulation can thus generate new market opportunities, which firms are eager to seize by reformulating their products in ways that may justify health claims.

The challenge today is getting businesses increasingly engaged in health promotion, while ensuring governments remain in the driving seat in setting goals and targets, and that the outcomes of any initiatives are independently evaluated. Imperial College Business School is actively engaged in evaluating the health impacts of changing lifestyles, as well as the impacts of business and government policies designed to make people’s consumption healthier. The Business School exploits the power of big data on health and lifestyles, and computer simulation models to analyse emerging trends and assess alternative policy scenarios.

To keep up to date with the latest analysis of the biggest issues facing the world from Imperial College Business School’s top academics, visit IB Knowledge: imprl.biz/mag-knowledge

About the author Franco Sassi is the Director of the Centre for Health Economics & Policy Innovation at Imperial College Business School, and holds the School’s Chair in International Health Policy and Economics. He is also a Senior Health Economist (on leave) at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), where he developed and was responsible for the organisation’s public health programme.

His work is aimed at assessing the impacts of public policies to tackle major chronic diseases and their predisposing

risk factors (e.g. poor nutrition, physical inactivity, alcohol and tobacco use, and a range of environmental and social exposures).

Prior to joining the School and the OECD, Professor Sassi was a Senior Lecturer in Health Policy at the London School of Economics and Director of the school’s Health Policy graduate programme. He held an adjunct professorship at the Université de Montréal, as well as visiting positions at a number of universities in the United States (including University of California at Berkeley, Harvard University, University of California at San Francisco, and Duke University) and at the Catholic University of Rome. He was awarded a 2000–01 Harkness Fellowship in Health Care Policy by the Commonwealth Fund.

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Health Economics and Policy

Is there a cure for inequality in drug innovation?

Our research is revealing the true nature and magnitude of the mismatch between drug innovation and global unmet health needs Written by: Dr Eliana Barrenho

According to the World Health Organisation, at least two billion people (nearly a third of the world’s population) don’t have access to the medicines they need due to lack of availability or because adequate treatments do not exist.

It’s no secret the pharmaceutical industry looks for commercially attractive drug development programmes. Although the industry is highly regulated, existing incentive mechanisms, including public funding, private and public partnerships, and ultimately the way the regulatory system is designed, are driving innovation in some disease areas at the expense of many others.

There is an urgent need to tackle this mismatch between investment and health need, and to develop effective interventions to increase innovation for diseases that are currently neglected.

Measuring inequality Our research looked at inequality in innovation by comparing R&D activity across all therapeutic and disease areas between 1990 and 2010. We discovered a mismatch between innovation levels and the burden of disease, as measured by disability-adjusted life years. For disease areas such

as cardiovascular and circulatory diseases, for which there are already numerous effective treatments on the market, industry keeps innovating in diseases with a higher burden and larger market size. These tend to be most prevalent in developed countries where the number of patients and the ability to pay makes the market financially attractive. For example, in 2010, 187 new drugs were launched for ischaemic heart disease (which accounts for 44 per cent of the cardiovascular and circulatory disease burden) and four drugs were produced for hypertensive heart diseases (which account for around five per cent of the disease burden).

For other leading causes of illness and death that already face a critical shortage of effective treatments, such as mental and behavioural disorders and neonatal disorders, innovation is disproportionately concentrated in a few low burden conditions.

And these inequalities have been increasing over time.

For example, in 2010, 89 new therapies were launched for the treatment of cannabis and opioid addiction, which accounted for roughly five per cent of the mental health disease burden

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worldwide. In contrast, just eight new therapies were produced for unipolar depressive disorders that accounted for around 34 per cent of the disease burden.

These findings paint a bleak picture of R&D inertia in tackling global health challenges.

At least 2bn Number of people who don’t have access to necessary medicines due to lack of availability or because adequate treatments do not exist

Incentivising social equity Industry responds to incentives.

We are already regulating the pharmaceutical sector, but not in a way that ensures alignment with societal objectives. Regulators set rules for drug safety, effectiveness, and price setting. However, they are failing to design incentives to foster more innovation in areas of societal need.

Resources are scarce. We need to ask ourselves which drugs we are prepared to pay for and which we are willing to forgo. We need a public discussion about which diseases lack innovation and should be prioritised from a societal perspective. Ultimately, we should be developing incentives to encourage the private sector to deliver innovation that is affordable and aligned with unmet health need.

Health technology assessment institutions such as the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence in the UK determine the value of drugs based on their impact on quality-adjusted life years relative to costs. Such policies control short-term spending on drugs, but the longterm consequences are not known.

If regulation fails to provide the right incentives, health systems may unintentionally undermine access to expensive yet cost-effective treatments. They may also reduce

the incentives to invest in underresearched disease areas that could contribute to a reduction of the global burden of disease.

Looking to the future, we need an open discussion, and more research, into why there is this mismatch between drug innovation and health need, and how it can be addressed. In particular, how economic criteria and resource allocation can be incorporated into R&D decisions. Our research is the first step in that direction, but much more needs to be done.

To keep up to date with the latest analysis of the biggest issues facing the world from Imperial College Business School’s top academics, visit IB Knowledge: imprl.biz/mag-knowledge

“We are already regulating the pharmaceutical sector, but not in a way that ensures alignment with societal objectives”

About the author Dr Eliana Barrenho is a Research Fellow at Imperial College Business School’s Centre for Health Economics & Policy Innovation. She studies the relationship between innovation productivity and health needs, specifically: the role of competition and alliances between firms in the drug innovation process; the health inequalities in drug innovation and disease investment; and the policy landscape in research and development, and innovation adoption in the health systems.

Her recent work examines the effect of social networks and national guidelines on the diffusion of new technologies in the English National Health Service.

She holds a PhD in Health Economics from Imperial College London. As well as the Business School, she has held positions at Paris School of Economics, the University of York, London School of Economics and Universidade Nova de Lisboa. She is a Research Affiliate at Chaire Hospinnomics and the Nova Health Care Initiative.

Dr Barrenho is also an advisor of the working group ‘Economics in Global Health Goals and Guidelines’ at the Center for Global Development, Washington DC.”

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Profile

Profile Victoria Cleland: alumna, banker and Queen of Cash In 1999, Victoria Cleland graduated from Imperial College Business School with an MBA; today, she is Chief Cashier and Director of Notes at the Bank of England Written by: Seb Murray

A week before I interview Victoria Cleland, she pulls off one of the biggest feats of her career as Chief Cashier and Director of Notes at the Bank of England: the launch of a new, polymer (and slightly orange) £10 note featuring Jane Austen (and Victoria’s signature). “People assume everyone at the Bank of England is an economist, but that is absolutely not the case: my team is very multidisciplinary,” Victoria says. “The £10 note was an enormous project combining scientists, designers, technologists, project managers, and, yes, economists.”

Her MBA at Imperial College Business School, which she earned in 1999, was vital to putting all the pieces of that puzzle together.

“What you get from an MBA is a breadth of knowledge – finance, marketing, HR – that prepares you for interdisciplinary roles.” Also beneficial was the diverse student body she studied within. “There was an amazing array of different cultures represented, and people at different stages in their careers. There was an amazing entrepreneurial spirit too: many of my peers had great ideas that leveraged the still relatively new internet, from online shopping to digital estate agency firms. That was groundbreaking at the time.” The winetasting club was also a personal highlight.

Today, it is Victoria’s job to ensure the British public has confidence in their currency – enough to ensure they toil long hours to earn it, and believe that a collection of over 20 different components manufactured from a transparent plastic film are worth what the Bank says they are worth, and can be exchanged for a car, mortgage or pension. She is the Queen of Cash. “I make sure we produce enough notes and that we have the right mix of denominations; I wouldn’t be very popular if all the ATMs gave out only £50 notes.”

The Future of Money The demise of cash has been assumed a foregone conclusion for some time now, as consumers increasingly opt for digital methods of paying for goods and services; these days, one can order one’s morning latte with the wave of a watch, the raising of a smartphone or the tap of a card. Victoria rejects that assumption – although a growing portion of her working day is spent pondering how the Bank can use the latest whizzy financial technology to its advantage rather than detriment.

“Cash is still very popular: we see strong growth in the use of cash year-on-year. People use cash for different things: some people use it as a budgeting technique and sometimes people like having cash on standby.” Though she adds, “I am keeping an eye on the fintech world and we are working to use state-of-the-art technology to make counterfeit-resilient notes.”

An active member of the Imperial College alumni community, Victoria was a keynote speaker at ‘The Future of Money’ in February, an event that explored the impact of fintech on banking. “We spoke about how you can go from having a fintech idea to becoming a fully-fledged entrepreneur,” she recalls.

Victoria has spent over two decades at the Bank, and has a long and varied list of achievements. After studying Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the University of Oxford – and a brief stint as an accountant – she joined the Bank in 1992, working on financing small businesses. She later worked on wholesale market supervision and then in graduate recruitment. Victoria also spent three years as Private Secretary to the Deputy Governor for Financial Stability, and on a team resolving the collapse of Northern Rock during the global financial crisis.

“ Transforming the country’s currency was huge for me and launching a new bank note is always incredibly exciting” What first motivated her to join the Bank?

“I had studied economics at university, and central banks are at the heart of the economic system. There is also the public service aspect of it, where you’re doing something to make a difference, to make the economy better. The variety of very different roles at the Bank is why I’ve been here for so long.”

The Bank hires from a wide range of backgrounds, and Victoria recommends a career in central banking to current MBA students: “It has an awful lot to offer. There are tonnes of different and exciting jobs in policy, markets, logistics – almost every skill is in demand.”

Noteworthy responsibilities Today, Victoria is in charge of a team of 140 staff across three sites. She is responsible for much central bank business, including its two cash centres, compliance, research and development, the design of new notes, educating banks and retailers on how to spot fake notes, and educating the public about new cash.

She says her biggest achievement to date was the launch in 2016 of the new five pound note: “It was the first ever Bank of England polymer note, so we had to educate the public about that, and have had great feedback so far. We worked closely with the cash industry too, to make sure that they were ready for the new design. That is a big piece of work. But transforming the country’s currency was huge for me and launching a new bank note is always incredibly exciting.” Next up on her agenda is the new £20 note. “It’s all systems go to get that out by 2020.”

But it is not just fivers, 10s, 20s and 50s Victoria is head of: deep in the vaults of the Bank are £1 million and £100 million notes, known as ‘Giants’ and ‘Titans’ respectively. “They are not as easy to spend,” she concedes.

Alongside all these other responsibilities, Victoria is in charge of whose image adorns each note – still important, given the public’s growing interest in the choice. Suggestions for the new note have included Mick Jagger, Richard Branson, Princess Diana, David Beckham and Robbie Williams. But she gives nothing away to me. The Queen of Cash knows how to keep things safe.

Imperial Business

IN BRIEF

Studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the University of Oxford Earned an MBA from Imperial in 1999, specialising in finance Worked on the resolution of Northern Rock The second woman to hold the post of Chief Cashier

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Technology

Blended learning: business education from the park bench In 2017, the first cohort graduated from the Global Online MBA. The success of the programme’s ‘blended’ approach has led to further programmes moving out of the classroom

This year saw the graduation of the first cohort from Imperial College Business School’s Global Online MBA. This two-year, part-time programme was designed to bridge the gap between traditional, on-campus programmes and purely online learning; offering both flexibility and quality.

This ‘blended’ approach was the brainchild of Dr David Lefevre, the Director of the School’s Edtech Lab and the Global Online MBA’s first Programme Director. “The biggest challenge we faced was to design a programme that effectively replicated the essential components of an on-campus MBA programme while maintaining the quality of the experience, and also in a form flexible enough to study around work, family and other commitments,” he told the Business School website in May. “The Hub [the Business School’s bespoke learning platform] enabled us to do this, and also revealed a number of advantages to the online format, such as enabling us to provide more feedback to students and creating a greater sense of connectivity [with] staff… The Hub kept us connected at all times regardless of our location.”

Student experience The inaugural cohort, who were inducted in January 2015, comprised 67 students, representing 30 nationalities. At the beginning of the programme, the students were divided into small syndicated groups based on residential time zones, with a mix of genders and industry backgrounds to ensure diversity. During their second year, the groups were separated by their electives.

The blended approach to learning has proven a canny way of both responding to and harnessing the digital threads of our increasingly connected world. While the Hub provided the main means of communication and teaching, students were soon getting in touch with each other via WhatsApp and Facebook as well, with the latter in particular proving a popular way for them to share news and stories.

“The programme provided such flexibility that I know of four women within the cohort who became new mothers whilst maintaining their required study level,” said the programme’s current Director, Dr Paolo Taticchi.

Among them was Yoyo Pui Man Chu, who was a chartering manager at Pacific Basin Shipping Company in Auckland when she began the Global Online MBA. In August, she told Education Technology, “I did find it tough

at times to study while on maternity leave, attending lectures online with minimal sleep and trying to breast feed at the same time. I don’t think any other programme could have allowed me to go through all that I was facing and still offer the flexibility to complete my studies.”

But not only was Yoyo able to complete her studies, she also went on to achieve a promotion shortly afterwards, becoming her company’s only female general manager. “My boss was impressed with me achieving the MBA in spite of all the challenges I had to overcome… The focus on innovation and entrepreneurship is so relevant in my industry, which is very old fashioned and there is a need for more awareness of technological developments.”

Playing to our strengths Entrepreneurship and corporate innovation are “hugely important”, Diane Perlman, a chief marketing officer and member of the Global Online MBA’s Business Advisory Board, told the Business School website in August, after the subjects were made core modules on the programme.

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“ There are a lot of employees who want to upgrade their skills or move laterally within their firm, whilst keeping their full-time job”

“There’s a growing trend in corporates, especially in the banking sector… [of people] leaving their jobs to start their own businesses because they want to solve the problems they themselves experience.” At the same time, “most corporates haven’t worked out how to do innovation well yet… They’ve realised they need to work with startups and they’re starting to hire people to work on these cutting edge projects”.

“The Business School has a strong capability in this field,” added Markus Perkmann, the School’s new Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship. “We have a dedicated Department of Innovation & Entrepreneurship,

which is unique in the business school world, and we are leveraging this capability for the benefit of our MBA students.”

Imperial expansion The success of the Global Online MBA has led to an expansion of the blended approach to other Imperial College Business School programmes: as of February 2017, it is an integral part of the Executive MBA, and 2018 will see the launch of the MSc Business Analytics (Online). Professor Kalyan Talluri, Programme Director for the latter programme, said: “In our conversations with companies, we found that there are a lot of employees who want to upgrade their skills or move laterally within their firm, whilst keeping their full-time job.”

The programme directors were also won over by the dual logistical and teaching benefits of the blended approach. “The initial reason for increasing the blended approach was that we wanted to reduce the number of on-campus sessions so that it would be easier to attract students from further away,” explained Professor George Yip, Associate Dean of the Executive MBA. “But we soon realised the big advantage is that students get the best of both worlds. They now get much of the lecture material – often the less exciting part of a module – delivered

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online and participate in very engaging exercises online, including group discussions. Thus they come to the on-campus sessions better prepared for the interactive discussions that have become much more the emphasis of the face-to-face classes.”

Professor Talluri echoed this reasoning: “The online format offers more collaboration because students can see each other’s work in real time. We use more pedagogical tools in the online delivery of the programmes, e.g. simulations, videos and research.”

Imperial College London is already one of the most international universities in the world; these new digital pathways will allow the Business School to strengthen its existing ties and expand even further, matching increased reach with continued teaching excellence.

“Our aim is to be the world’s best blended Executive MBA and I think we are close to being that already,” said Professor Yip. “Our hope is that the blended approach will allow us to increase both the number of students and the geographic reach of the programme, as well as enhance the learning experience.”

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Technology

Q&A

What the Tech?

Through a series of weekly drop-in sessions, Business School students have been helping older residents in Hammersmith and Fulham get their heads around everyday technology problems

In June, the Business School launched ‘What the Tech?’ a digital literacy programme for older people at the Edward Woods Community Centre in Hammersmith and Fulham. The project was set up by the Dean’s Student Advisory Council in collaboration with Helen Rowe of the Urban Partnerships Group and the Edward Woods Community Champions.

‘What the Tech?’ consisted of weekly drop-in sessions where older members of the local community could bring along any devices or online activities with which they wanted help, and receive support from a team of volunteers from the Business School. Questions ranged from how to Skype family members abroad to how to pick up calls on a smartphone.

To find out more, we spoke to Mobeen Iqbal, Doctoral student and Chair of the Advisory Council, about the scheme and the plans for its future.

Why is societal outreach important for a university and its students?

A university such as Imperial College London attracts some of the brightest minds in the world; that makes us a very able and diverse student body. As students, we’re very fortunate to be in a position to obtain a world-class education.

However, we’re also in a unique position to be able to give back to society and help where we can.

I think it’s incredibly important for a university to support societal outreach initiatives as it not only roots down to one of the purposes of universities in society – to understand how one can make the world a better place – but also helps its students develop softer skills that cannot be learned in the lab, through a textbook, or any form of lecture. Imperial College London not only supports its students’ societal outreach initiatives, but actively encourages them, and I think that’s absolutely remarkable.

What was the response to ‘What the Tech?’ from the residents?

The response and feedback was so inspiring and uplifting. The residents thoroughly enjoyed the sessions and they’re looking forward to further sessions when we restart the programme. One of the ‘Community Champions’ at the Edward Woods Community Centre, which is where we hold the sessions, said in feedback that the sessions really brought residents out of their shells. She noted that some residents used to rarely come to the community centre and would seldom leave their residence.

Now, those same residents come to the sessions every week and stay the entire 90 minutes even if they don’t have specific questions about technology – they enjoy chatting to our student volunteers and telling us stories about their lives. Overall, the residents have thoroughly enjoyed themselves and we have seen an increasing number of participants in each session as they have encouraged their friends to come along too.

Imperial Business

“ Imperial College London not only supports its students’ societal outreach initiatives, but actively encourages them, and I think that’s absolutely remarkable”

Was there anything you changed in response to feedback?

There wasn’t much to change as we have left the structure of the sessions very informal.

They are drop-in sessions where any residents over the age of 60 can come in and chat to us about their problems with technology and we are able to help.

One change we are looking to make is to ensure that we have a sustainable number of volunteers every week so as to keep the sessions running smoothly. There were times where some residents weren’t able to speak to a student volunteer as we have just been at full capacity, and so have had to leave the session not having had their question answered.

They haven’t necessarily minded this as these sessions were a pilot project for a larger initiative. However, I would like to make sure that we have a strong volunteer base so that we are able to expand the project and make sure that all participants can be put in touch with a student volunteer.

You’ve been recognised with a Student Award for your efforts, how was that?

Indeed! I’m extremely grateful that the College and the Business School have recognised me for my efforts with an award for ‘Outstanding Student Achievement’ as well as a Dean’s Community Award for Improving Society – although I believe these awards should be given to the whole team behind ‘What the Tech?’; it was a team effort in getting the sessions going.

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A societal outreach initiative is something I have been wanting to launch at the Business School since I started in 2014 and it is incredibly uplifting to see that not only have I been able to contribute to doing so, but also that the College and Business School have recognised the importance of such a scheme and are actively encouraging students such as myself to continue pursuing such initiatives.

What is the future of the scheme?

In my mind, we will launch similar schemes at other community centres and have a strong volunteer base across the Business School and College that runs the sessions. Also, in the medium to long run, I envisage a scheme in which we’re helping more groups of the community. At present, we run these sessions for residents aged 60 year and older. I would love to be able to contribute to the youth of those communities as well; perhaps one day we will run sessions in which the younger generation of the community are able to volunteer alongside us to help the older generation in their community with technology needs. The overall aim is to use our skills and availability to make society a better place; as long as we continue achieving this and expanding on those achievements, I believe the future of the scheme is very bright.

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The Dean’s Fund

Q&A

A lifeline for students Imperial Business speaks to John Trieste, recipient of a hardship grant from the Dean’s Fund, about how the funding helped him make the most of his studies

In 2016, John Trieste (MSc Finance 2016) was awarded a hardship grant from the Dean’s Fund for the Business School. Because of this funding, provided by 57 generous alumni and friends of the School, John could achieve his dream: to study on the Imperial College Business School MSc Finance programme. For a student who struggled financially to finish his undergraduate degree, the Dean’s Fund award was a lifeline.

This summer, we sat down with John to find out more about how the funding changed his life at the College.

Why did you choose to study at Imperial?

Education has always been a priority in my family and I was going to pursue the best education I could. I wanted to make sure that I was pushing myself, with other students who were just as dedicated as me. Imperial was the ideal place, and the College’s ability to place students at top investment banks and consulting firms was also really important to me.

What are you planning to do now that you’ve finished your degree?

I worked at a small hedge fund in the summer of 2015, and I found the work you do there very thoughtful, intense and interesting. I’d like to have a career in the hedge fund industry but know that you often have to work at investment banks to get enough experience. So that’s my plan right now.

What did you enjoy most about your time at Imperial?

I never really cared about old buildings or amazing sports teams: it felt great to know that I was with some of the best students in the world – students who will go on to be leaders, innovators and pioneers in their fields. I loved that.

Do you have a message for the alumni and friends who provided the funding?

I think that some of the best students are those who have to struggle for something in life; people who help pay for their education and see that their families are making serious sacrifices are motived to make the most of college. I know that I could not have received the education I have without the generosity of others and, when I am older, I fully intend to do my part to help students of humble means attain the education they deserve.

How did you use your hardship funding? How did it affect your time at the College?

It would have been close to impossible for me to attend Imperial without the help of the Dean’s Fund; it would have been a real strain on my family just to pay for my living expenses. Not only has the hardship funding freed up more time for me to focus on my studies, but it has alleviated the stress that comes from constantly worrying that money could derail all of my plans.

“ I think that some of the best students are those who have to struggle for something in life”

In 2016–17, 79 alumni and friends donated £15,871 to the Imperial College Business School Dean’s Fund.

The fund supports business students in reaching their full potential by funding scholarships for MSc and MBA candidates who show exceptional promise but need financial assistance, and providing emergency support to Imperial College Business School students who are experiencing unexpected financial difficulty.

Thank you.

BE A PART OF IMPERIAL’S FUTURE WITH A LEGACY GIFT For over a century, Imperial has been at the forefront of research and education.

By remembering Imperial in your will, you help us to pass that tradition of excellence on to future generations.

Last year Imperial received over £1.5 million in legacy gifts to support research and education. This vital funding enabled us to offer more scholarships, including to young scientists like Darshan Shah, whose wrist simulator is helping us to better understand how normal wrist movement is affected by injury — and which surgical procedures are most effective at restoring normal function.

After you have remembered family and friends, please consider being part of Imperial’s future by pledging a legacy gift to the College.

However much you are able to give, your legacy gift makes an important and enduring contribution.

To find out more about making a legacy gift, contact Anna Wall on +44 (0)20 7594 3801 • a.wall@imperial.ac.uk

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Alumni

Alumni updates

Some of our alumni fill us in on what they’ve been up to – their greatest successes, their notable achievements and their proudest moments – in the last year

Avinash Bajaj Full-Time MBA 2011 London, UK

Anjalika Bardalai Executive MBA 2014 London, UK

Louis Belloin MSc Management 2013 Lausanne, Switzerland

Xia Chen MSc Management 2015 London, UK

“I have started a podcast called The MBA Jam, which gathers stories and insights from MBA alumni of some of the world’s best business schools, to pass on their knowledge and experience to those considering making their MBA investment.”

“I worked on a particularly exciting project, TheCityUK’s new research on green finance, which was published in September 2017. It was undertaken in collaboration with the Centre for Climate Finance & Investment at Imperial College Business School, during which time I worked with Dr Charles Donovan. It has been wonderful to be engaged with Imperial again, this time in a professional capacity rather than as a student or alumna.

I am also a member of the Business School Alumni Advisory Board.

“I work in the head office of EXTIA Switzerland, an engineering consulting company with 1,000 employees across Europe. We manage people in the fields of engineering and digital. You can find out more about us at www.extia.ch.

“This year I worked on an exciting project: the Nationwide Building Society (NBS) Architecture Target Operating Model, which was initiated to deliver a clearly articulated end-to-end architecture operating model. Along with another graduate from [my former employer] Glue Reply, I joined a Project Lead (Business Solution Architect) at NBS to work on the assessment of the current state of maturity of their architecture function. This experience provided me with a valuable opportunity to gain some fundamental and broad understanding of an architecture function. I was nominated twice in the NBS PRIDE prizes for ‘Doing the Right Thing’ and ‘Excelling at Service’.

“Since January, I’ve been a trustee of the charity All Stars London, which uses performance to develop transferable skills that can open horizons and create opportunities for young people from less privileged backgrounds.”

“I am also an advisor with a foodtech startup: we prepare cooked meals and are developing our business around the world, with partnerships in Japan, Ukraine, Switzerland and France at the moment. Do not hesitate to get in touch for more information.”

“I am one of the founders of the Imperial Women’s Network at the Business School and this year we have hosted several professional development events as well as informal get-togethers. I enjoy meeting driven and enthusiastic people who care about a good cause. I also volunteered on the Core Organising Team of TEDxSquareMile from August 2016 to late 2017. I moved to Deloitte in November 2017.

“I have benefited from many very interesting events organised by the Business School, such as Imperial Women in Innovation, Women in Fintech, and Artificial Intelligence in Risk Management.”

Imperial Business

Robert Eames MSc Management Science 1981 Melbourne, Australia “In my role as Director (Principal) of Fivenines Consulting, I have led a project evaluating the impact of automated driving systems on the framework of regulation of both vehicle registration and driver licensing. The aim is to ensure unnecessary legislation is removed while responsibility is correctly attributed, contributing to better road safety and certainty for all roads stakeholders. While the development of automated vehicles is thrillingly leading edge, if we don’t get the background regulatory framework right, we will have a massive mess!

“I also supported the New Palm Court Orchestra (a not-for-profit limited company that performs exciting music in an improv classical framework) with the development of their business strategy for the next few years.

This is an opportunity to return business skills developed over a working career to the arts sector, directly to a vibrant group of talented musicians trying to establish a long term presence in the Australian arts scene.”

Nazeli Ghukasyan MSc Economics & Strategy for Business 2014 London, UK

Emily Heather-Maher MSc International Health Management 2014 London, UK

“I started a new job and am now a Business Intelligence Consultant at KPMG London.”

“This time last year I was a Senior Analyst at Bupa and have just recently started on the ACA training programme at Moore Stephens.

The team I’ve joined, International Institutions and Donor Assurance, specialises in auditing recipients of grants from large international organisations, such as the EU or UN. This means that while I study I will be travelling all over the world!”

Avanti Gupta MSc International Health Management 2013 London, UK “I’ve recently changed jobs and now work at the Gerson Lehrman Group (Life Sciences Research).”

Richard Guy Full-Time MBA 2013 London, UK “After I left the MBA, the startup that I joined (Focus Group Europe) grew to 75 people, the turnover grew to £11 million a year and we won a number of industry awards. Our company was awarded the number 33 spot in the 2016 Tech Track 100, which recognised the fastest growing technology companies in the UK. We then managed a successful exit and were acquired

by Accenture in March 2017. Since the sale, I’ve been given the role of UK & Ireland Practice Lead at Accenture and am responsible for the growth and day-to-day management of the business unit.”

Yann Helle Executive MBA 2010 Woking, UK “In 2016, I was promoted to become Managing Director of 2H Offshore Engineering. I am also a member of the Business School Advisory Board.”

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David Keene Executive MBA 2012 London, UK “I started a new job and am now COO at Google Academy. I am also a member of the Business School Alumni Advisory Board.”

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Alumni

Alumni updates

Johnny Kwan MSc Management 1979 Shanghai, China

Jung Hyun Kwon MSc Management 2011 Dallas, USA

Matthew Stafford Executive MBA 2010 London, UK

William Wong Full-Time MBA 1998 London, UK

“I started my business in 2015: we are a social business and we offer consultancy on sustainable solutions in China. We don’t ask for consultation fees but for social investment from our clients. I am also the Chairman of the Imperial College East China Alumni Association and a member of the Business School Alumni Advisory Board. This summer I organised an event, ‘The Science Reality of Climate Change’, during which members of Shanghai’s business community, and alumni from Imperial and other UK universities, discussed the issue of climate change.”

“I am currently working towards my PhD in Management, and recently worked on an interesting project in intellectual property rights strategy.”

“I founded the Dot Matrix Group: we are a small syndicate of angel investors investing in UK startups at the seed stage. If you would like to join the syndicate please email me at matthew@dotmatrixgroup.com.”

“There are two strands to my work in photography (architecture, travel, portraits and floral/still life close-ups): my images appeared in three exhibitions this year, while I am also Managing Principal of the Instagram platform @london_only.

Fuad Shakshir Executive MBA 1997 London, UK

“At @london_only we have quadrupled our follower base to almost 36,000 in two years. We connect London with the world through curated images and live broadcasts from events such as the FT Weekend Festival and inaugural National Geographic Traveller Festival. We reach audiences from New Zealand to Brazil and Chile. We only hire the best and one of my team members is an Imperial alumna. We recently recruited two community managers to grow our offline presence in London and the UK.

Deniz Morali MSc International Health Management 2014 Sydney, Australia “I recently changed roles and now work in life science strategy consulting.”

Michael Rogerson Full-Time MBA 2016 Bristol, UK “I have continued with my life-long learning with a Postgraduate Certificate in Sustainable Value Chains from Cambridge, which is helping me move on to a different career path. I am also on the board of a humanitarian charity, the Moldova Project – I lead impact measurement for them. I think it’s a duty for people with skills and experience to help organisations to grow and assist less fortunate people.

“The world is changing so fast, and there’s so much complexity, that if we don’t keep learning we’ll be left behind. It’s also just interesting to learn new things and be around new people.”

“I am now Head of Real Estate Funding at Qatar Islamic Bank in the UK, reporting to the CEO. We assist clients by partially funding their real estate acquisitions or projects in a Sharia-compliant way.

We provide senior and mezzanine funding, for both investments and developments. We have two main strands of business: real estate funding and private banking. As expected for a mainly Gulf highnet-worth client base, we have residential, hotel and commercial assets – mainly in London. We are now looking at widening both our geography (we will still be UK-focused) and asset classes (e.g. student accommodation and logistics). I am also a member of the Business School Alumni Advisory Board.”

“Let me know how we could help you create compelling visual content and stories for your target and hidden audiences. Our Instagram accounts are: @intereverything @ourgaze @intimate_wonders. Find me on LinkedIn.”

Imperial Business

Sivan Zohar-Abenson Executive MBA 2015 Liverpool, UK “I have started my own consultancy business where I coach executives and advise SMEs and high growth companies on their strategy, operations and leadership. Having been a part of a few startup ventures (during which time I helped them raise capital) and worked many years in operations, I decided to create a business that would allow me to share my knowledge and experience, and help other companies and individuals achieve their goals and dreams. You can find out more about us at www.sa-strategy.co.uk.

“During the past year, I have also had the pleasure of taking part as a mentor in the Mass Challenge and Virgin Startups accelerators, which I highly enjoyed. My few words of advice for those who want to become mentors would be: pick an organisation, company or individual that you believe in and you think you would enjoy working with or which you can make a difference to. If you work with a business venture, try to pick a venture in an area that you are passionate about or a business that you are inspired by. This will make your mentoring experience much more enjoyable.

“I have started building my property portfolio, which was a long time ambition of mine. And I still keep in regular contact with many of my classmates, as well as being on the Business School Alumni Advisory Board.”

In memoriam Ewa Graf (1987-2017) MSc Management 2011 Ewa was a MSc Management Advisory Board member and contributed significant time to support students in their career journey.

Emily Darlington Howland (1980–2017) Full-Time MBA 2011 Darlington was an active member of the Business School and alumni community, assisting with student career events and contributing to the School’s programme marketing.

Veronica Cefis Sellar (1970–2016) MBA 1993 Veronica was a former Alumni Advisory Board member and an active member of the Business School and alumni community.

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44

Profile

Profile Professor Samuel Eilon: Engineer, leader and businessman In May, Imperial College Business School welcomed back Professor Samuel Eilon, a leading figure in the founding of the School Written by: Rebecca Firth

“ The year he received his professorship was the same one in which he moved his family into the house in which he still lives”

Imperial College London is an institution not short on history: from the Queen’s Tower that dominates the South Kensington campus, to the statue of Queen Victoria that greets you as you enter the main building on Exhibition Road. Yet often overlooked is the history of the people who have worked at the College.

In May, then-Acting Dean Professor Nelson Phillips hosted a reception in honour of Professor Samuel Eilon, a man credited with laying many of the foundations of the Business School as we know it today. Notable attendees included the President of Imperial College London Professor Alice Gast, then-Associate Dean Diane Morgan, Mrs Hannah Eilon and Dr Amir Eilon (the son of Professor Eilon and himself an Imperial College Business School alumnus), and their families.

Imperial career Professor Eilon graduated in Electrical Engineering from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology in 1945, and went on to serve in the Israeli armed forces. When the time came to adjust his focus back to his career and decide on a location for his postgraduate studies, he had “a list of American business schools, including Columbia and the University of Michigan” to choose from. Yet, he recalls, it was his old headmaster who suggested Imperial College as the place to study.

The Professor’s arrival in London in 1952 will sound familiar to anyone landing at Gatwick or Heathrow today: his first impression of the city was “very big and noisy” and “fascinating, with lots to do”. His studies resulted in a Diploma of Imperial College and PhD in 1955, after which he stayed on to become a lecturer in the Mechanical Engineering Department. He won two Whitworth Prizes for papers published by

IN BRIEF

PhD from Imperial College London Former Professor of Production Engineering Former Head of the Department of Management Science Founding member of the Royal Academy of Engineering

the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in 1960. In 1963, he was awarded a DSc (Eng) and, in 1964, became Professor of Production Engineering.

One of Professor Eilon’s most notable achievements during his 37 years at Imperial was the creation of the one-year advanced course in Operational Research and Management Studies in 1961. This programme helped to lay the foundations of the School of Management, now known as Imperial College Business School. In 1971, Professor Eilon was appointed Head of the newly created Department of Management Science.

In addition to his work at Imperial, Professor Eilon was a member of the Monopolies Commission and, in 1976, one of the founding members of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

The latter, then known as the Fellowship of Engineering, was created with the purpose of advancing and promoting excellence in all fields of engineering. He also published 17 books and was the Chief Editor of Omega: The International Journal of Management Science.

Imperial Business

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Life beyond the College Professor Eilon’s work outside the classroom saw him act as a consultant in a range of sectors.

He notes the academic community were often encouraged to work in industry – an experience he is grateful for, as it provided a variety of interesting real world examples, from family businesses to large corporations.

The Professor recalls that the year he received his professorship was the same in which he moved his family into the house in which he still lives. The four walls of the dining room are covered with the smiling faces of peers past and present, as well as the many younger faces of the growing Eilon family. Seated around the long oval dining table, of which he still sits at the head, were once many of Imperial’s professors. “Sometimes we struggled to fit them all in,” says Professor Eilon’s wife, Hannah, with a laugh. It is evident his career at Imperial was not just one of teaching, but one of collaboration and friendship.

Two influential professors left a lasting impression on Professor Eilon: Professor Sir Owen Saunders, Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, and Professor Willis Jackson, Head of the Department of Electrical Engineering. These two gentlemen not only inspired Professor Eilon during his career at Imperial, but were instrumental in influencing social sciences at the College. He notes his success – and that of the Department of Management Science – would not have been possible without the support and contribution of all his colleagues.

“What an honour it was to welcome Professor Eilon back to Imperial,” said Professor Nelson Phillips. “He was, in effect, the founding Dean of the Business School; thanks to his vision, the Department of Management Science grew from strength to strength. Without him, ours wouldn’t be the world-leading business school it is today.”

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The Future

A home for business in an age of uncertainty As he steps down as the School’s Acting Dean, Professor Nelson Phillips is optimistic for the future Written by: Professor Nelson Phillips

About the author Professor Nelson Phillips was Acting Dean of the Business School from 2016 to 2017, and continues to hold the Abu Dhabi Chamber Chair in Innovation and Strategy. His areas of research interest include entrepreneurship, technology strategy and innovation, organisation theory, and qualitative research methods. He has published more than 100 academic articles and book chapters, and holds editorial positions on several journals.

‘Globalisation’ has long been one of the hallmarks of business schools around the world.

Following Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, it’s not surprising schools have been keen to reassure existing and potential students, as well as faculty, of the creative, entrepreneurial and academic excellence they bring to the higher education community.

Choosing to study in another country has always been a risky decision for international students, even before 2016’s referendum vote.

For business students, the high cost of an MBA degree, which often involves giving up a career for a year of studying, is a calculated risk.

I believe the students London-based schools seek to attract – the natural risk-takers – will continue to take a gamble on the city and take advantage of the excellent educational experiences available, as well as the wealth of links between London-based schools and industry in the capital.

London is flourishing in a number of traditional and new markets, from finance to big data, healthcare and even climate change.

Companies such as Accenture, Deloitte and McKinsey have long reached out to Imperial for outstanding business graduates and will do so as long as London, in Mayor Sadiq Khan’s pledge, remains “open for business”.

Capitalising on the Trump effect But does anything change now Donald Trump is President of the United States? His presidency has created real uncertainty for students and academics who would ordinarily have looked to US business schools for their next career move.

However, the current climate represents a huge opportunity for UK business schools to show our international values by welcoming more students from Trump’s black-listed countries, as well as other Muslim countries such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE. In the past, the Gulf countries have sent many thousands of students to the US and as a result they have extensive ties with major US business schools. But students from the Gulf may now be

deterred from studying in the US by some of Mr Trump’s announcements. These students still want to go abroad and study in English, creating an opportunity for UK business schools.

At the same time, US citizens have long been attracted to studying in London and the drop in the pound has made this even more attractive.

International students can now obtain an MBA degree from a prestigious business school for a much lower price in the UK. Applications for all our programmes at Imperial College Business School are up, some by more than 50 per cent, while in the US only a third of programmes have reported any growth in international applications (in 2016, it was 49 per cent).

The spirit of partnership I believe big corporates and companies with an international outlook will continue to seek out the best graduates, whether they are based in London or elsewhere. Technology is making this even easier by increasing opportunities for employees to work remotely from wherever they are based in the world. This further breaks down barriers between countries, cultures and nationalities.

The spirit of partnership and bringing together great minds from across the world is what drives the world’s best universities and businesses. At Imperial, I see many examples of how students are working together to create exciting new business ideas.

The prospect of being part of a thriving, entrepreneurial community that contributes to the UK and global economy will make Londonbased schools like Imperial attractive places to work and study. In a time of political uncertainty, it’s never been more important for us to embrace the contribution of the world’s best students, academics and researchers in enabling London to flourish.

To keep up to date with the latest analysis of the biggest issues facing the world from Imperial College Business School’s top academics, visit IB Knowledge: imprl.biz/mag-knowledge

“Applications for all our programmes at Imperial College Business School are up, some by more than 50 per cent”

Time to think In times of environmental, societal and technological disruption, new thinking is required.

An Imperial Executive Education is the time to explore, experiment and transform – embracing bold new ideas guided by global thought leaders, science pioneers and business experts.

You’ll go way beyond the classroom too.

Experience science and technology innovation uniquely blended with the results focus of business to deliver practical learnings with Impact Lab™ .

We run short, immersive courses across: Health Innovation Management, Strategy & Leadership Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Marketing Finance, Fintech & Risk Management so you are sure to find a programme that supports your ambitions.

All Imperial alumni are granted a bursary of 20% on the total fee.

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