Nubs the review 2013-14

The Review

2013–14

Society Matters Highlights from the past year with a special focus on social issues affecting business

Inside: Journey to Downing Street: a graduate’s view on working at No.10 Beware big data: health warnings on a red-hot topic The enemy within: why cyber crime prevention needs a human angle Universities and social mobility: our Vice-Chancellor speaks out Community power: the potential for people-led social change Behind the silver screen: a graduate’s role in India’s blockbuster industry

Newcastle University Business School The Review 2013-14: Society Matters

Chinese partnership signals plans for strategic global network

Putting man before machine

Global experience and employability: are we getting it right?

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Contents 1

Welcome to The Review

17 Unlocking the potential of people who stammer

34 Answering the call

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Chinese partnership

18 Sustainability and gender

36 Community leadership and social change

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10 years of Flying Starts

21 Universities and social mobility

40 Working at No. 10

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Putting man before machine

24 A cooperative approach

42 The enemy within

10 Global experience and employability

26 Alumni network goes from strength to strength

46 A life-changing placement

12 Inspiring debate

28 View from my window

48 Beware big data

14 Six weeks with the Reserve Bank of India

30 The new-world MBA

52 Dr Herbert Loebl

32 Marketing the Indian film industry

Key to symbols:

Spotlight

Society Matters features

Student Perspectives

Alumni

Alumni network goes from strength to strength

The new-world MBA: assessing evolution of the business world’s most established qualification

Answering the call: Roy Sandbach on a mission to build North East innovation

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Sustainability and gender

Universities and social mobility

Driving excellence throughout the Business School

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Welcome to The Review Today, we expect organisations to make decisions that are good for people, as well as profit. In recent years, terms such as ‘social responsibility’, ‘common innovation’, and ‘sustainability’ have matured from being understood in enlightened organisations, to being implemented across mainstream business practices.

This year, The Review takes a look at some of the many and varied ways in which a selection of these social and business issues collide.

One of the core themes running through the University, and the Business School, is social renewal – a drive towards encouraging socially responsible solutions to global challenges. Our academics increasingly tackle the tougher questions being asked of the global business community; through teaching, research, and direct engagement with industry, we share those responses as widely as possible. Crucially, our students are encouraged to make a positive and lasting difference to the world, regardless of the role or path they choose when they leave.

If you’re new to the Business School, I hope The Review will spark an interest in the work we do, and how you might like to engage with us. If you’re already connected to us, I hope you will enjoy hearing about some of the thoughts and achievements of our staff and students.

On behalf of everyone at the Business School, here’s wishing you all the very best for the academic year.

Laura Foster Head of Marketing and Communications

Community leadership and social change

The enemy within: why we need to examine the human end of employee cyber crime

Beware big data: the perils of ignoring local context in large-scale statistics

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Newcastle University Business School The Review 2013-14: Society Matters

Chinese partnership signals plans for strategic global network

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he Business School is at the centre of a significant international partnership between Newcastle University and Xiamen University, China, following the announcement of a formal collaboration in Spring 2013.

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Newcastle. The delegation – headed by the Dean of the School of Management, Professor Shen Yifeng – visited the Business School, where discussions explored the opportunities for collaboration between the two institutions.

The partnership represents a focus on developing a tight, but highly interactive, global academic network that will benefit students, staff and partners of all member institutions.

Since then, plans have been coming together for a series of activities that will forge an important strategic alliance between the Business School and a top-20 ranked Chinese university, providing major opportunities for cross-cultural knowledge exchange as well as leading research across common areas of expertise.

Operating under the theme of ‘China and the global economy’, the Business School is working on a number of initiatives with Xiamen’s School of Management that will come to fruition over the next 12 months.

Among the activities planned are a summer school, tailored executive education programmes, a research symposium, and a joint degree programme.

Initial discussions were held with colleagues from Xiamen University’s School of Management in

The Business School’s Director, Professor John Wilson, said, ‘The Business School is working hard to continue to build its global presence, and the collaborative activities agreed with Xiamen University’s School of Management are a step towards a highly valuable relationship.

‘Not only does such a relationship create beneficial opportunities for both institutions, it also strengthens the effort to take collaboration activity with the University’s global partners to new levels.’

Aside from the summer school and executive education programmes, likely areas for future research collaboration include social accounting, finance, and working with University colleagues in Law to explore themes around financial regulation. The two universities have set aside £2 million in seed funding commitment, to ensure the most promising research projects can be explored following a symposium, planned to take place in April 2014 at Xiamen University.

The Xiamen agreement is a promising development in a much wider plan for strategic global expansion at the Business School. Plans are also underway to cement partnerships in North America, Europe, and Asia that consolidate and build on existing relationships.

‘In today’s world, context is everything, so it is vital we provide local translation and scale to our research, teaching and industry engagement,’ commented Professor Steve Hughes, Director of International Strategy. ‘We believe this can be achieved best by working with a core group of partners, in key global regions, who share our values and ambitions for the future.

‘By working multilaterally, we can all benefit from complementary connections, whether that’s to advance learning opportunities, research interests, or industrial ties. I share my colleagues’ excitement about the future of the Xiamen partnership, as well as the other exciting collaborations we look set to establish over the coming years.’

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Newcastle University Business School The Review 2013-14: Society Matters

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The Flying Start celebrates its 10th anniversary and a 95 per cent employment record n April 2013, one of the UK’s first employer and industry partnership degree courses celebrated its 10th anniversary, with an employment record of over 95 per cent. The Flying Start business degree programme, delivered in partnership between the Business School, PwC, and the ICAEW, is now in its 11th year.

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The programme was the first to see a top university, leading employer, and professional membership organisation come together to offer advanced career opportunities while providing students with a regular university experience.

The programme is also unique in the way it prepares students for professional accounting careers. As well as graduating with a degree from a top UK university, over three years students complete 12 of the 15 ICAEW professional exams and 10 months’ paid work

experience with one of the world’s top professional services firms. After completing a four-year degree, successful students are offered a full-time graduate job with PwC. Since its launch, the programme has been a popular route for training Business, Accounting and Finance students, with around 350 applications for the 50 places available each year, and close to 85 per cent going on to graduate roles at PwC. The programme has seen consistently high academic performance; in 2011, for example, the programme outperformed traditional degree programmes with 100 per cent of the students obtaining a first class or 2:1 degree, compared with a national average of 63 per cent achieving the same top grades at university.

Richard Irwin, Head of Student Recruitment at PwC, commented, ‘We took a conscious decision to keep

Ten-year anniversary celebrations brought former students together in Newcastle.

students in university education. It’s important that employers find a balance between academic learning and offering work experience, so that students can get the skills, the knowledge and the learning discipline to become well-rounded employees.

‘For us as an employer, sponsoring degree programmes makes good business sense. The cost is 40 per cent less to train students to qualification level on our Flying Start programme than it is on our mainstream graduate programme. Cost-effective recruitment enables us to recruit a larger number of graduates and makes the course sustainable year after year.’

Dr. Simon Parry, Degree Programme Director for the Business, Accounting and Finance BA (Hons) programme at the Business School, said, ‘This degree has been a great success for all three partners and has become the blueprint for others to follow.

‘The collaboration has enabled us to provide a combination of academic study, professional training and relevant work experience to produce graduates who offer great value to employers. A decade of experience has evidenced that our students are ‘work-ready’ and fully equipped to face corporate challenges and thereby benefit in terms of rapid and rewarding career advancement.’

Gaynor Bagley, Head of People at PwC, added, ‘Ten years ago, this was a unique concept and it’s become increasingly attractive to both students and us as an employer over the years. The programme has enabled us to better respond to the increased pressures on students with the introduction of fees, reduced graduate opportunities overall and the need to demonstrate business skills. There is fierce competition amongst employers to attract the top graduates and the Flying Start programme allows us to build a strong pipeline of talent, ensuring we attract the people and skills we need to keep our business growing.’

Mark Protherough, ICAEW Executive Director – Learning and Professional Development, said, ‘Combining a degree with real-life work experience and a professional accounting qualification has proved incredibly successful in preparing ambitious students for a career in business, accounting and finance. This programme has an enviable record of producing extremely talented individuals and this course, along with other University partnerships, remains a popular route into the profession.’

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Newcastle University Business School The Review 2013-14: Society Matters

Putting man before machine In conversation with Dr Colin Ashurst, Associate Director (Learning, Teaching and the Student Experience)

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In the mid-nineties, the eyes of the world were on the battle between man and machine. In 1996, renowned chess master Garry Kasparov narrowly beat a supercomputer called Deep Blue, but lost out to a souped-up model a year later. Surely, many said, this was a sign that computers were now capable of outwitting even the most gifted human brain?

However, do we really need to be creating the best system ever, or should we just be focusing on the best system for us?

However, in a 2010 article in the New York Review of Books, Kasparov offers an interesting anecdote.

In 2005, online chess site Playchess.com offered tempting prize money for the winner of a ‘freestyle’ chess event, which allowed participants to team up with other humans or even computers if they wished.

f your IT department had unlimited pots of cash, would you build a HAL 9000? We’ve grown up with the argument that technology will eventually solve all our problems, so we’re often drawn toward the bells-and-whistles systems that will automate our daily tasks, make our decisions for us and possibly even make us an omelette at lunchtime.

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Teamwork trumps technology

‘There is often a danger in IT that people drift into dreaming up vast sets of requirements,’ says Colin.

‘The classic route to failure is pursuing an excessively technology-driven, feature-driven approach. You lose sight of why you’re doing it, the organisational strategy and the benefits to stakeholders. Then you end up with the wrong solution, or the right one but you haven’t educated the users properly.’

For a company that’s serious about innovation, people are hugely important. Colin believes an organisation can put its employees in a position to succeed by designing flexible systems that encourage people to learn by doing and to work together.

‘There’s definitely a tendency to use IT in a way that doesn’t recognise the craft skills of the users. It’s not about over-automating, but providing the right tools to connect people to people,’ he says.

‘As we’re putting systems in more for the professional workforce, we’ve got to learn a bit more about the freedom for professionals to be professionals and not part of the machine.’

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In a field that included supercomputers and grandmasters, victory surprisingly went to two American amateurs using three computers.

Kasparov cites a principle known as Moravec’s Paradox, in which computers can handle high-level reasoning such as solving difficult computational problems, but struggle with things such as common sense and perception that we’d take for granted in infants. This means that humans and computational systems (such as IT) should be far more effective when working together than working alone, especially when the right framework is in place. It’s also a set-up that lends itself to adaptation, and to innovation.

That still applies today, even as technology advances.

Take, for example, the controversial subject of drones.These would appear to be a perfect example of automation. However, in a January interview with The Daily Show, MIT’s associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics Missy Cummings argued humans still had a key role.

There are so many examples of system failure where tens of millions have been spent on major IT implementation that never had a chance… They didn’t know what the problem was, and once they got started the momentum was so huge they couldn’t stop.

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Newcastle University Business School The Review 2013-14: Society Matters

‘We still need humans to make judgement decisions and use experience, particularly when there are situations and contingencies that we didn’t anticipate,’ she said. ‘When the uncertainty is high, this is where the human reigns supreme.’

Before taking on his Business School role, Colin consulted with PwC and held senior IT leadership roles at Asda and Microsoft. Both as an employee and a consultant, he’s seen the benefit that suitable IT can have on an organisation, but also how it goes beyond the mere specs and features of the technology.

‘When done right, IT is great at getting more information to people rather than leaving it tightly controlled in the centre,’ he says. ‘It’s about giving people more opportunities to understand what’s going on and enables more accountability and initiative at a local level.

‘What I’m starting to see is that innovation is being treated as a much higher priority. Organisations are looking at their overall portfolio of projects and taking a careful look at where they are allocating resources to innovation, and if they are approaching these investments in a relevant way.

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‘There are usually good foundations to build more collaborative ways of working. When you’re talking about innovation, you’re not just talking about technology. So rather than just laying out a long list of requirements and formal agendas, you should be looking at new and creative ways to get teams working together.’

What does this button do?

In some organisations, there can be a temptation to try and plug the workforce into the system, rather than use the system to help the workforce work better.

As a result, you can end up with expensively, painstakingly constructed IT that’s used to a fraction of its potential. Not to mention an office full of confused staff.

Colin says, ‘I once talked to an IT director who joined an organisation that used a certain brand of large enterprise software. One of the senior managers was complaining the software was useless and didn’t give him the information he needed.

‘As it turned out, the IT director knew that it did, and could give it to him the next day. It was just that no one

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knew about it because they couldn’t use it properly.

‘That’s an example of the lack of knowledge that causes frustration. If you’re using large software, poor education and turnover of staff can mean the knowledge from the original training rapidly decays and you end up using the most basic set of features rather than what’s possible.’

While working at Durham University a couple of years ago, Colin jointly surveyed 117 senior business managers working in the North East on how IT worked in their organisations. Only 44 per cent believed their companies were making best use of their current systems. Tellingly, only 29 per cent believed senior business managers and IT managers ‘spoke the same language’, while only 40 per cent agreed the IT vision was aligned with the corporate vision. This hints that in some places, there’s a danger of developing IT that doesn’t link up with what the organisation wants to do, and that quite possibly confuses both the management and the staff themselves.

Colin says, ‘There are so many examples of system failure where tens of millions have been spent on major IT implementation that never had a chance because they didn’t know what the problem was, and once they got started the momentum was so huge they couldn’t stop.

‘Very process-driven IT can freeze out innovation. The ability to change the system can end up so far removed from you in organisational terms that you get to the point where you don't even bother trying.’

In a 2001 paper, Harvard University’s Shoshana Zuboff said technology could be used to ‘automate’ and reduce the need for people, but had an even more powerful role in ‘informating’, or providing vital information to support decision-making. This is why it is important for any system to be designed with the end user in mind, so it can be used to its full potential, and also put that user in a position to make changes to improve or even transform that organisation.

She says, ‘An informating strategy recognises the value and function of the smart machine, but only in the context of its interdependence with smart people. It is the knowledge and understanding in people’s heads – their intellective skill – that turns smart machines into an opportunity for fundamental business improvement.’

Making IT more flexible In his report on IT in the North East back in 2011, Colin and co-writer Alison Freer pointed out that IT could be built in a more friendly way if more business leaders were educated as to its importance, and more senior IT managers were present in the boardroom.

In this way, when discussions take place on where an organisation needs to go, they would include people who know how the current IT system works, and how it could be reshaped to help staff work toward those aims.

Colin believes it is hugely important that IT and business professionals are encouraged to work together and pool expertise to devise an effective, understandable and yet flexible system.

So how do organisations nudge employees towards this cooperative approach? Colin suggests exploring new ways of working through pilot projects, rather than unleashing mass change by overhauling the system in one go.

‘Often the way that corporate IT works is that you fight for a big budget for a big project, where it would often be more sensible to think flexibly, give out smaller amounts of seed money and follow it up if benefits start to arise,’ he says.

Several organisations are already benefiting from this approach, even at the highest level. In an article for FCW earlier this year, the US Department of Defense discussed how it is using pilot projects to try out mobile technologies with less strain on budgets, and less exposure to red tape.

The department is testing a range of approaches, including how it might use smartphones and tablets to manage data in the field.

The department’s CIO Teri Takai says, ‘The 50 pilot programmes we have out there today are really the basis for the strategy and for the implementation plan.

Those pilots were a great way to get a view of what the needs were. Then the question is: How do you take care of those needs? How do you use those as an example in the future?’

Colin argues that developments such as Cloud-based systems provide the opportunity to pilot, learn and adapt. In this way, employees can explore new ways of working, experiment and innovate, and use that experience to suggest more road-tested and interesting solutions.

‘You’re not losing control, and you’re not fudging the system. It’s moving away from this command and control, crack-the-whip mentality toward an understanding that you can support people and enable them to get the job done.

‘A craftsman builds up a toolkit of practices and ways of working that they can adapt to situations as needed, rather than slavishly and ineffectively going through methodology and rules they don’t necessarily understand very well. We need to support people in working in the way they naturally work as professionals.

‘If you create a little pilot group, you can handle something and then move onto something bigger. It’s about making yourself more agile and flexible so you build momentum.

‘We dive too quickly into developing the solution before we really found out the problem. This gives you the flexibility to put a small team on it, and see what you can do. That’s how innovation happens.’

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The primary objective of GEO is to provide students with the practical skills for success in the global marketplace

Newcastle University Business School The Review 2013-14: Society Matters

Global experience and employability: are we getting it right?

Sharmishta Chatterjee-Banerjee on the value of global experience opportunities. lmost every day we find something in the media about the need for universities and, in particular, business schools, to produce global-ready graduates.

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Even if graduates never leave their own country, on graduation they will be forced to compete in international, or multinational, work environments.

With the evident globalisation of the worldwide economy and a fiercely competitive job market, we are seeing employers using a global perspective to choose their future graduate employees.

With evidence also pointing to a relatively low number of students from the UK embracing international experience opportunities as part of their undergraduate studies, employers are also facing the dilemma of having to rely on the mobile minority of students to respond to their business needs.

According to the QS Employer survey, 62 per cent of employers, globally, confirmed that international experience is considered as part of their recruitment process. A recent British Council/Think Global survey found that 79 per cent of chief executives and board level directors of businesses in the UK thought that, in recruiting new employees, knowledge and awareness of the wider world are more important than achieving a high degree grade.

Increasing globalisation and the interconnectedness of multinational work environments have intensified the demand for graduates capable of operating in culturally diverse contexts and studies have shown that employer requirements are broadly consistent from one country to another.

While all these studies advocate the benefits of gaining international work/study experience, we wonder: how good are business schools at promoting the skills students actually develop during these experiences overseas that make them attractive for employers?

How good are we at enabling such employability skills in our international students? And, do we take into account those immobile students bound to their native country (not every student can be persuaded to go abroad)? How can we do more to enable them to develop similar skillsets to their mobile counterparts?

Taking these important questions into consideration, our ‘Global Experience Opportunities’ or ‘GEO’ programme at the Business School has been designed to deliver profound transformational learning both through international experiences in a number of regions, and opportunities at ‘home’ to enable both students and employers understand how international and intercultural competencies can be developed through an innovative extracurricular experience.

The primary objective of GEO is to provide students with the practical skills for success in the global marketplace and ensure its teaching is relevant to what is happening in the boardroom. At the Business School, we believe that developing a practical, global experience helps consolidate students’ learning and provides them with the skills and differentiation needed to get that all-important first job, or to step up the career ladder. By providing a portfolio of offerings, our students grasp a diverse perspective of the constantly evolving corporate world.

GEO views international and intercultural as two sides of the same coin, by incorporating relevant learning outcomes into our co-curricular activities for all students, not simply through opportunities overseas, but by introducing global thinking through initiatives such as our Global Speaker series, innovative workshops like our ‘Gain a Global Advantage’ day, and global competitions with partner institutions.

We are seeing the value of this initiative through the benefits and outcomes of the experiences of our students and employers after graduation.

To find out more, contact Sharmishta at: sharmishta.chatterjee-banerjee@ncl.ac.uk.

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Newcastle University Business School The Review 2013-14: Society Matters

Inspiring debate One student’s account of the ‘Gain a Global Advantage’ day at the Business School umour had it an iPad was up for grabs.

Although public speaking had never been my strong suit, the challenge of spending two minutes ‘Taking the Mic’ seemed bearable, especially because I didn’t own an iPad.

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So off I went – healthy breakfast, morning lecture and then up to the 8th floor of the Business School for the ‘Gain a Global Advantage’ (GaGA) afternoon. It seemed predictable enough: attend a few workshops, hear stuff I had surely heard before, and hopefully ditch that dusty Kindle for a shiny iPad if I could string some intelligent sentences together... That’s how I thought it would go.

Little did I know that, by the end of the day, I wouldn’t care if I’d won an iPad or not. Because what the GaGA lectures did wasn’t just bringing together a bunch of success stories – the ones that you should feel inspired by but seem a world away from what you think you can achieve yourself. These lectures, and the ‘Take the Mic’ session, specifically, prompted a discussion. Not the kind that teaches you how to achieve global success in 10 easy steps, but the kind that gets you curious about things, the one that you want to take part in because ‘global’ starts with an individual – you.

The GaGA speakers were undoubtedly clever business people. Getting to hear their individual stories was interesting, but collectively, invaluable. They were inspiring, but not because: 1) they built something out of nothing; or 2) they were knocked down several times, but through sheer determination picked themselves up; or 3) insert ‘inspirational quote’ here; because that is the sort of thing that I think young people hear enough in movies.

What I found truly motivating during the afternoon was seeing how a debate came alive, a debate started by the speakers and continued by Newcastle students. Seeing so many people bounce ideas off each other, how they envisaged the future global society, made me want to take part – agree, disagree, just not stay indifferent.

Perhaps many of us were in the room that day to upgrade from an old gadget to a new one. But, somewhere along the way, the people that we came in contact with throughout the afternoon made us see the bigger picture.

What is the big picture? Getting involved. Whether it’s throwing parties for the Students’ Union, organising accounting socials with your course mates, attending School events solely for the chance to win an iPad, getting involved makes you part of a network of people who will, inevitably, get your mind and spirit working. This network is, from my experience, the most useful tool you will ever have, and once you realise this, you’ll know what to do with it, and you’ll know it’s possible to go anywhere.

Achieving success in 10 simple steps is not possible (despite what 89 million Google pages say), but making yourself part of something is a concept accessible to anyone, and once it starts, your life starts.

For many of us, standing up in front of an audience of intelligent, highly educated individuals, and verbalising a thought, was the first step in our transition from students to professionals.

In the end, I did win an iPad that day, but that was such a small part of it.

Monica Molesag International Marketing MSc

Students enjoyed a day of interactive workshops.

Left: Monica is presented with her iPad by Antony Jones, CEO / Executive Chairman, Externum, and member of the Business School’s International Advisory Board.

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Newcastle University Business School The Review 2013-14: Society Matters

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Six weeks with the Reserve Bank of India For the third year running, a group of enthusiastic Business School students set off on a six-week summer placement with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), India’s central bank.

‘fielded’ (took pictures), although Alex and Cam did dabble in a spot of batting.

ver the six weeks, the student teams kept a blog of their time with the RBI; what follows are excerpts from their messages back to the Business School.

On Sunday, we decided to once again follow the advice of the guidebook and this time headed to June Bazaar. What we didn’t realise was that this was right on the edge of a slum. Seeing the slum close up was eye-opening for all of us, with ramshackle houses of scrap material piled on top of each other with goats and chickens wandering through the narrow streets.

Week 1

Week 2

We arrived at the College of Agricultural Banking (CAB) campus in Pune at around six in the evening and were shown to our rooms. Saturday dawned and we embarked on our exploration of Pune.

On Monday morning, we headed into the CAB training centre. From the library we were taken to the Financial Literacy Centre, an interactive learning experience created by the RBI. Here it was explained to us how the RBI was trying to increase financial inclusion in India through improved financial literacy amongst the people.

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During our wanderings, we spotted a red clay courtyard where a group of boys played cricket. Given one of our group, Alex, is a keen cricketer, we decided to ask the boys to join their game. They graciously accepted and were soon hero-worshipping Alex and his bowling technique whilst the rest of us mostly

We were introduced to the ideas of self-help groups and micro-financing institutions, two methods to extend credit to the poor through group financing and liability.

That afternoon, we were given the opportunity to visit the Archives. Whilst we were only designated a short time for our visit, it was made clear that we were welcome to return at any time if we wanted access to old bank documents or just to indulge a personal interest.

Our first working week passed in a blur as we became acquainted with the literature surrounding our projects.

Our overwhelming first impression of India, and particularly the staff at the CAB, is how willing everyone is to help and make us as comfortable as possible, from ensuring the food isn’t too spicy, to giving us addresses for local sari shops and jewellery stores.

Our mentors, too, have been very accommodating, providing us with numerous resources and making time to answer our queries, however small, despite their busy schedules.

Week 3 The big economic news in India at the moment is the devaluation of the rupee and the RBI’s attempts to rectify this matter, which has made our perspective from within the bank particularly interesting, especially for Alex and Cameron who are focusing on Foreign Exchange for their project.

No two days have been the same at the RBI; whilst working on our projects we frequently talk to members of staff about the Indian economy, its future prospects and the cultural shift that is taking place within Indian society.

Our projects cover a variety of topics: Phil and Jess are focusing on microfinance and its effects on India’s banking sector; Jennifer and I are researching poverty alleviation; and Harriet and Ben are studying the RBI’s schemes to improve financial inclusion.

Throughout our stay here, the RBI have been organising trips to various local institutions; this week we were very fortunate to be able to visit two of India’s largest companies: the Serum Institute and TATA Motors. The Serum Institute is the largest creator of vaccines in India and the fourth biggest manufacturer in the world.

It is estimated that half of the world’s children have been vaccinated by the produce of the Serum Institute.

Our second excursion of the week was to the TATA Motors factory in Pune. TATA is best known for its acquisition of Jaguar and Land Rover in 2008 in the

UK, but in India it is known, not only for being India’s largest automobile company, but also a subsidiary of the all-encompassing TATA Group.

This week also saw us visit cultural sites such as the Parvati Temple. Located on a hill on the outskirts of Pune, we were able to see the vast city after a massive 113-step climb.

Week 4 We managed to venture out to Chaturshringi Temple midweek despite an increasingly productive working week. The Goddess Chaturshringi is considered to be the presiding deity of Pune and has plenty of historical significance. An annual festival is held onsite that attracts thousands of worshippers and interested parties.

In addition, on Wednesday we were able to attend an Indian Karaoke night at a local restaurant. The atmosphere was very interesting and entertaining, although the majority of the songs were sung in Hindi.

Towards the end of the working week we were fortunate enough to be taken to two more RBI coordinated excursions.

The first took us to the compound of Infosys, one of the largest information technology firms in India. With over 20 acres of land and facilities, including massive fitness centres and five-star guest-houses, the site we toured seemed more like a resort than a company compound. This trip further highlighted the wealth disparity present in India.

The next trip took us to a number of microfinance institutions. We began Friday at a federation for microfinance. It works as a saving and lending institution run by non-banking individuals, most prominently by women. Many women in poorer areas are, for the first time, being outspoken and active in their communities.

Next we travelled to a small rural village to speak with members of a self-help group. A self-help group is a group set up by roughly 10–15 women that pools savings while receiving financial education from correspondents of banking institutions. We were interested to learn about their way of life and how much banking initiatives such as the self-help group had changed their ability to purchase necessities and improve living conditions.

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Week 5

Week 6

In short, our fifth week at the RBI consisted of a dash to complete our projects and our trip to Mumbai.

The task of presenting our projects in front of, not only our tutors, but also the Principal of the Reserve Bank of India, was a daunting prospect.

On Friday morning, we headed to the RBI’s central office in Mumbai. From here, we walked to the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), where we had a seminar on its history and operations.

We were taken to the huge trading floor where 4,000 bustling traders could be found before all trading was moved online. Visiting the central office was next on our agenda, something all of us were eagerly looking forward to. The food was exceptional and we drank the best Chai we had tasted so far.

We then headed to the Foreign Exchange Management and Foreign Exchange Reserves Management Departments, both being directly relevant to Alex and Cameron’s line of research.

We had the opportunity to meet some of the traders in charge of around $280 billion foreign exchange reserves. We had meetings with senior members of both of these departments and it was a great opportunity to ask questions, although the secretive nature of global central banks meant not all of them could be answered! We also visited the currency management department where we could see fraudsters’ attempts at making counterfeit notes and we were talked through all the techniques in detecting counterfeit notes.

All groups delivered their presentation with a high standard of professionalism while maintaining composure throughout the question grilling.

The celebrations began after a long day of work as our reports were finally submitted. The American contingent left early next morning; we hadn’t realised how much we would miss their company. Leaving the College of Agricultural Banking was rather upsetting as we had been made to feel like family members.

After one or two photos were taken, a letter of thanks was written and presents were given, we were finally on our travels.

It must be said that this experience has been invaluable.

Not only has it has provided us with the opportunity of working for an esteemed central bank, it has expanded our understanding of the importance of effective teamwork and cultural disparities.

Ben Bivins; Alex Blofield; Harriet Foden; Cameron Gebhard; Philip Hodgson; Gagandeep Jagpal; Jessica Nguyen; Jenny Pirault

Newcastle University Business School The Review 2013-14: Society Matters

Unlocking the academic potential of people who stammer Research from Dr Clare Butler earlier this year revealed that people who stammer often struggle within the education system, and that many fail to attend university as a result. r Butler, a lecturer in work and employment at the Business School, interviewed 38 people who stammer (PWS) through the course of her research and found that only five went on to higher education.

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‘The impact of having a stammer on progression to higher education has received little research attention,’ said Dr Butler. ‘I asked participants to tell me the story of their stammer and what emerged about their time at school highlighted that their negative experiences often prevented them from attending university.’

Published in the International Journal of Educational Research, participants’ accounts of their school days had one common message: school was a challenging time.

‘Firstly, participants reported that the emotional strain of spending each day at school feeling anxious because of their speech, and specifically the possibility of being asked to speak or read aloud in class, meant that they were keen to leave the educational environment as soon as possible. Secondly, but arguably related to the first, participants stated that they were often lacking the qualifications to gain a place at university.

This has clear implications for the social and economic prospects of PWS.’ Dr Butler continues, ‘Many of the people I spoke to described both frustration and hopelessness at the end of their time at school.’

Dr Butler’s research received widespread attention from the media, with coverage on BBC Radio 4 and in The Guardian newspaper, among other sources.

In responding to the findings of the study, Cherry Hughes, Education Officer at the British Stammering Association (BSA), commented, ‘The BSA welcomes

this research: it clearly identifies the difficulties encountered by PWS in the educational environment.

Since 2000, we have developed training resources for practitioners – accessed at www.stammeringineducation.net – which help educators to support pupils who stammer to reach their potential. However, there is still much work to be done before we can be certain that stammering is never a barrier to achievement in education and employment.’

Dr Butler says, ‘It is crucial that society recognises the challenges people who stammer face within the education system, and that help is given so that we can encourage more people who stammer. It is vital that higher education entrance requirements are responsive to the experiences of people who stammer.

Policies need to reflect the fact that some children’s journeys through the education system will be complex and, undoubtedly, the solution will be equally complex.

However, in the interests of the well-being of children who stammer, these challenges must be discussed.’

The news came as the journal Sociology of Health & Illness publishes further research by Dr Butler that highlights the ingenious communication approaches used by some PWS to manage their speech impediment.

Dr Butler concludes, ‘This research has highlighted two central messages: the ingenuity of people who stammer, and the challenges they face in the educational environment that restricts their ability to learn and progress to higher education. This is an issue for society as a whole: we are missing out on their skills and abilities.

‘Educational policymakers and practitioners need to unlock their doors to people who stammer by revisiting their admissions policies and related practices.’

You can find out more about Clare’s work on the Business School’s website.

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You can make changes that promote greater equality, but they have to be something everyone can buy into – not just women – or they can be counter-productive.

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Newcastle University Business School The Review 2013-14: Society Matters

Sustainability and gender Why equality in the workplace makes business, as well as social, sense hat do we mean when we say we want a more sustainable world? We are now locked in global conversations about how to adjust our way of life to improve our societies.

However, reshaping the planet isn’t just about tackling environmental and economic issues. It is also a matter of addressing its inequalities.

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‘When companies engage in the sustainability debate, they think about how environmental issues tie in with economic and strategic issues, but often don’t include social ones,’ says Professor Kathryn Haynes, the Business School's Deputy Director.

‘When we look at sustainability in a business context, we should be encapsulating equality as a key social issue in that agenda.’

Kathryn has spent years researching gender and equality in organisations. She was an accountant for eight years before moving into academia, and joined the Business School in 2011 after spells at York and Aston.

She is also part of a United Nations’ initiative called the Principles for Responsible Management Education, which aims to cultivate more forward-thinking management education worldwide.

Kathryn is involved in a working group on gender equality, which is building a global repository of curriculum materials and research on gender issues and education.

‘We’re trying to build these resources up for anyone to use. In future, we’re keen to develop some good practices and innovations – which could be in education or business – to show how small or large innovations can bring about further gender equality.’

In places like the UK, part of this conversation has been focused on increasing the presence of women in high-profile roles. According to a report from Cranfield University, women occupy just 17 per cent of the board positions at FTSE100 companies.

However, Kathryn also argues that the work must also take place beyond the executive level.

‘It’s important to think about how equality issues affect people through the global supply chain in different social and economic systems. Many businesses are not addressing equality further down the supply chain.’

In countries such as India and Ghana, many women are paid far below the minimum wage despite playing a key role in the farming of the vital cocoa crop. In Colombia, women make up the majority of the flower industry workforce, but an Oxfam report suggests that at peak time many work up to 80 hours a week for as little as a dollar a day. Lack of access to education is also an issue in many countries.

At the 2012 Sustainable Energy For All summit, UN Women executive director Michelle Bachelet said, ‘It is time to empower people to make sustainable choices, but for many it is not about the lack of access to sustainable choices but about not having choices at all… This is particularly true when it comes to women and girls.’

Kathryn believes there should be a focus on better auditing of the supply chain, so that larger companies can ensure they are working with the businesses that are more attuned to equality. Protecting women’s rights is one of the factors featured in Oxfam International’s Behind the Brands report, which gauges businesses based on the practices in their supply chains.

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© World Economic Forum swiss-image.ch/Photo by Jolanda Flubacher

© Neil Palmer (CIAT)

While our focus is often on the presence of powerful women like Sheryl Sandberg at board-level within big businesses, Kathryn argues that we need to be aware of women’s roles at all levels in the global supply chain.

‘It’s fair to say that some companies are looking at it, but to what degree?’ she says.

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There is growing evidence of a business case for greater equality, as well as a social one. A Pepperdine University study indicated that the 25 Fortune 500 firms that were known for promoting women outperformed industry medians over several years. These companies were up to 69 per cent higher in terms of equity, and 34 per cent higher in terms of revenue.

Figures including former World Bank president Robert Zoellick have talked about the ways in which encouraging gender equality can boost innovation and performance, while reports from McKinsey, Oxfam and Forum for the Future have argued the business case for such diversity. McKinsey cites 2011 research from US non-profit Catalyst, which found a 26 per cent difference in return on invested capital between companies with 19–44 per cent female board representation and those with little to none.

However, Kathryn notes there is still work to do.

‘Despite quite open policies about promoting equality and career opportunities for women, there are still subtle cultural issues that mitigate against those policies working as effectively as they might do.

‘I did a project that looked at how women were perceived in organisations, and it was clear that if they didn’t fit the right look it was difficult for them to assert themselves. Many felt they had to take on masculine types of behaviour.

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‘There is still more to do in challenging people’s expectations and norms of behaviour. For example, when looking at promotions criteria, it’s important to take a step back and ask if everyone has an equal opportunity to achieve those criteria. Does it require certain ways of working, outputs or working away from home? It’s very easy for some of these outcomes to be gendered if no one actually thinks about it.

‘You can make changes that promote greater equality, but they have to be something that everyone can buy into – not just women – or they can be counterproductive.’

Kathryn believes the responsibility for changing attitudes also lies with those educating future employees and leaders.

‘I believe educators like business schools should have a sense of social responsibility. We shouldn’t just be reflecting the outside world and moulding people into what we think companies need. We should be shaping that world by encouraging students to open up to new critical ideas and different perspectives.

‘We’ve seen the effects of the financial crisis on companies and economies, and maybe as business schools we were a little complicit in that by not sufficiently challenging the economic practices that led to the crisis. Perhaps there’s a parallel here.

‘You can’t teach people to behave in a particular way, but you can facilitate the development of their critical decision-making skills and open their minds to ideas that they may not have come across before.’

Newcastle University Business School The Review 2013-14: Society Matters

Universities and social mobility The topic of universities and social mobility has been on the national agenda for decades. In recent years, governments have looked more towards higher education to help shape economic prosperity and quality of life in the UK.

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Newcastle University Business School The Review 2013-14: Society Matters

Newcastle University’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Chris Brink, is also Chair of the Student Policy Network of Universities UK. Q: What do we mean by social mobility in the context of higher education?

A: Coming from South Africa, I have found the UK (or perhaps only England) to be a particularly classconscious society. Social mobility is thought of primarily as moving up a ladder of social classes – improving status and income.

The difficulty with this view is that it is one-dimensional.

It leaves no room for lateral mobility. To me, if you move from being an engineer to being an artist, or vice versa, then that is social mobility, despite the fact it is neither up nor down. In a diverse society, a onedimensional view of social mobility strikes me as inadequate.

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This ‘linearism’, as I call it, manifests itself in many ways. In secondary and higher education it is exacerbated by the national fixation on rankings and league tables. Social mobility has become correlated with – and in my view, contaminated by – a view of education as a positional good.

I believe universities’ role in social mobility needs to be considered as more than just a measurement of admissions. We need to be accountable for outcomes beyond graduation, into the workplace and in terms of contribution to society at large.

Q: Why should social mobility matter to universities?

A: It matters morally, socially and economically.

I believe that ability should be able to access opportunity regardless of circumstance. Success should reflect innate talent and potential more than background or money. Social mobility has consequences for social cohesion and social inclusion, and it impacts on economic growth and prosperity – in a globally competitive economy, success depends on unlocking talent.

A high-value, knowledge-based economy needs a mobile society – for example, 80 per cent of new jobs

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created by 2017 are projected to be in occupations with high concentrations of graduates.

At Newcastle, not only do we pursue academic excellence in research and teaching, we believe our role is also to respond to the needs and demands of civil society. That is the essence of our vision of a world-class civic university: excellence with a purpose.

We implement this vision by organising our research and teaching in response to the pressing issues that society faces and to help prepare students for responsible citizenship, nationally and globally.

We should not only know what we are good at, but also what we are good for. In particular, we believe that a university education is not only a private benefit, it should also serve as a public good.

Q: Other than academic factors, how can we determine the impact a university has on students’ lives?

A: We have a major role to play in shaping what happens to people after graduation.

There is a growing body of evidence to suggest that students from less-privileged backgrounds show a poorer rate of progression into graduate employment, and earn less, even if they access the professions.

The differentiating factors include access to professional networks and work experience, alongside soft skills such as confidence, communication, and knowledge about how ambitions can be realised. That means that universities’ role in social mobility should go beyond admissions to graduate skills and employability.

The growth in occupations and professions requiring high-level skills means that individuals will need suitable qualifications and skills to enter the job market. This demonstrates the increasing importance of universities developing new flexible and responsive progression routes, not only into, but also through, higher education, without which some people may be trapped at the lower end of the employment market.

Q: How should universities be working with industry partners to encourage a more mobile society?

A: If we are to work towards supporting fair outcomes for graduates, this should happen in partnership with employers, business and industry.

Alan Milburn’s recent report on fair access to the professions picks this theme up. He highlights the importance of universities and employers working together, as well as highlighting the importance of employers adopting open recruitment practices, and encouraging recruitment across the wide range of universities and further education colleges.

Likewise, the importance of business–university collaboration was reflected by Sir Tim Wilson in his report, which looked at graduate employability and the importance of sandwich courses, internships and business-funded students. The forthcoming Witty review is also likely to emphasise the role of universities in their regional economies.

Just recently, The Association of School and College Leaders published a number of articles on ‘promoting social mobility’. Their view is that key professions and employers should be incentivised to recruit less affluent young people through high-potential schemes via initiatives such as tax breaks, or to facilitate employer

tuition fee bursaries to undergraduates from low socio-economic status backgrounds.

At the other end of the pipeline, universities need to continue their work with schools and colleges to help raise attainment and aspirations. No sector alone can do this. Universities have a role to play, but they are not the only role players.

Q: Finally, what about people who don’t go to university – how do they become more socially mobile?

A: Going to university is not the only way of achieving a good life and making a contribution to society.

Roughly half of school leavers do not go to university.

We should not assume that all of them would have wanted to, or should have wanted to. Even of those who have the necessary school-leaving results, some may simply have made different life choices and career choices. A university education is not and should not be the sole indicator or determinant of social mobility.

That way lies elitism.

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Newcastle University Business School The Review 2013-14: Society Matters

A cooperative approach Professor John Wilson was appointed Director of the Business School in November 2012, with an ambitious but exciting agenda to drive excellence throughout the institution. business historian by academic discipline, John has a specialist interest in the Co-operative Group, which this year culminates in the launch of his book, Building Co-operation.

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He talks about the role business schools must play in today’s society, and provides a few highlights from his career and research to date.

Q: Where do you see the Business School making the most impact on society over the next five years, and what does social renewal mean to you?

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A: Like all business schools, we have a responsibility to the societies in which we operate. There is no denying the impact that unfettered, rampant capitalism has had on social cohesion in recent years. Business schools, therefore, have an even greater duty today to ensure their work is responsible and geared towards sustainable social economic practices.

In Newcastle, we must bring our research to bear on some of the most pressing social economic challenges.

For example, we offer leading knowledge of alternative, empowering business models such as employee and stakeholder ownership. Businesses can and should benefit enormously from involving people in their activities and we are in a position to help them realise those benefits.

Going back to grassroots, I will ensure we continue to invest in lifelong learning initiatives, such as the Formula One for Schools and Newcastle Foundation projects we run with local school children, which have been particularly effective.

We’ll also look more closely at blended learning opportunities that give our people the chance to make a difference in other countries in an ethical, responsible and sustainable way.

Q: How can academia assist major changes in industry and in everyday life?

A: In so many ways. If we look regionally, we have a big part to play in enhancing employability. Currently, we train thousands of students every year, many of whom leave the region after graduation.

I’d like to see major industrial players in the North East working with us to help create a solid workforce infrastructure – companies in the £20 million to £200 million bracket who can make a real difference to the employment demographic of this region, helping to retain the global talent we attract at University level.

Q: What should students expect from a business school education in 2013?

A: To be able to understand social and economic issues better, and to leave with a desire to make a difference in the world. That’s a personal, as well as social, agenda: not just selling their labour, but helping society.

Professor John Wilson’s book, Building Co-operation, is out on 10 October, published by Oxford University Press.

Q: How has the ‘job’ of an academic changed in recent times to meet new demands from the outside world?

A: It’s changed from being an academic preserve lasting 30 weeks of the year, to an all-year-round, allencompassing job. We have a constant academic cycle now, and the expectation is that academics’ work needs to have social impact.

Whether we like it or not, students are beginning to see themselves as customers and the market is responding. As study options become more and more competitive, students are behaving more like consumers, looking for tangible benefits and added value. We are also seeing more parents involved in decision-making processes, as they invariably provide financial support with fees.

Q: What have been the highlights of your career so far?

A: Joining the Business School is a definite highlight, but apart from that, taking UCLAN (the University of Central Lancashire) through their Research Assessment Exercise in 2008 and overseeing a peak in research performance in the run-up, was especially rewarding.

I also published a book in 1995 called British Business History. To date, it’s still being used as a core text for students, so I am very proud of that, too.

Q: Where is your favourite place to be inspired/ do business, and why?

A: My partner and I have a flat on the banks of the Tyne. From our balcony at night, when the city is lit up, it’s an incredibly beautiful view. We call it our ‘holiday home’ for that reason – but it’s a very inspirational place to contemplate life and work.

Q: If you could be ‘stuck’ next to someone on a long-haul flight, who would it be and what would you ask?

A: I’d have to say Winston Churchill, just to scratch the surface of his personality. He was, on the face of it, a great rhetorician, but prior to the Second World War, he had a reputation as a bit of a rogue. I’d love to know what really motivated him, what he was really trying to achieve in his career.

Q: Can you review your soon-to-be-published book on The Co-operative Group – in 50 words or fewer?

A: The book coincides with the 150-year anniversary of the Co-operative Group.

It details how the Group has retained its social and ethical values – continuing to pioneer modern retailing and set standards for the role of co-operative and mutual enterprises worldwide – despite numerous turbulent periods.

Q: What are the main lessons we can learn from the Co-operative and other ‘third way’ business models?

A: The whole raison d’etre for the Co-operative Group was to create better value for consumers – to reduce prices and stop the adulteration of food, so that people were getting a fair deal. We can learn from that, that employee and customer involvement in business – as a moderating effect on the worst impacts of capitalism – is vital. More than anything else, however, the Group has shown how important it is to adapt to change, especially political change, over a long history.

Q: What lessons from business history must we never forget?

A: That there will always be crises and change; businesses and societies need to steel themselves and prepare for those events. Every three or four years, we will witness change in the world that means we have to evolve in some way. In that sense, change really is the only constant.

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Newcastle University Business School The Review 2013-14: Society Matters

Alumni network goes from strength to strength

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t has been a busy year for the Business School’s rapidly developing global alumni network. In terms of infrastructure, more branches have now formalised in the UK and overseas, providing local context to the work of the Business School’s growing community and a valuable network for graduates of all eras.

We were delighted to see North America, Beijing, Shanghai, and North West England branches come together – virtually and physically – to add to the existing North East England and London branches.

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All branches can be found online, via the Business School’s LinkedIn group, with North West England, North East England, London, and North America branches also hosting Facebook pages. Graduates and existing students are encouraged to interact with as many of these groups as they wish, with the emphasis being on establishing links across all relevant regions. If you need help accessing any of these groups, please get in touch with Tristan Alltimes: tristan.alltimes@ncl.ac.uk/bsalumni@ncl.ac.uk People interested in establishing alumni groups in their city or region should also contact Tristan for advice and support.

The Shanghai group got off to an auspicious start when the University held its first-ever congregation ceremony in the city, inviting all graduates who had completed a degree at the University to attend and celebrate their achievements with us.

The Beijing branch launched in the summer; Caroline Zhao, Human Resource Management MA 2004, leads the newly formed committee of five as Chairperson, and is organising a special reunion weekend event to tie in with celebrations happening for Convocation Weekend in Newcastle.

The North America branch is now officially established as a ‘virtual’ branch due to the geographical spread of our alumni across the States. Mike Kennedy, E-Business (Information Systems) MSc, 2010, and Chairman of the new branch, is leading the first event planned for November 2013 in New York.

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Although the plan is predominantly to host virtual events, the branch has decided that an exciting event in New York will help to launch the branch’s events programme.

Finally, the North West England branch had its inaugural committee to plan events and activities for all Business School alumni based in the region. With committee leadership being finalised, the branch will have news shortly of when and where its first event is going to be held.

Back here in Newcastle, work is ongoing to raise awareness of the alumni programme and network among existing students through events and activities.

One event in particular, ‘Gain a Global Advantage’, saw over 300 students attend sessions aimed at helping them understand the global nature of business today.

Alumni sessions, led by Sam Waterfall (Financial and Business Economics BA Hons, 1998), Sarah Hall (Economics and Accounting BA Hons, 1983), and Ailsa Birkett (Executive MBA graduate), all went down well and contributed to spreading the word of the Business School’s alumni programme.

These types of sessions will continue and, with more alumni choosing to keep in touch and get involved, we hope to deliver many more of these excellent sessions for our students in the future.

Over the next few months, we will be developing an improved online experience for our alumni community, including dedicated branch webpages where you can follow, sign up and get involved with branch activity at a regional level.

In the meantime, Alumni Matters, the dedicated e-newsletter for graduates, and the branch social media groups, will keep readers up to date on events, activities, and how to get involved in your area.

As ever, if you would like to contribute to the Business School’s alumni relations programme, please get in touch: tristan.alltimes@ncl.ac.uk.

Shanghai Branch

North America Branch

North East England Branch

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North West England Branch

London Branch

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Newcastle University Business School The Review 2013-14: Society Matters

View from

my window

Alumni are invited to submit pictures from their place of work towards the Business School’s ‘view from my window’ feature on Flickr. The feature can be found under ‘Sets’ within the Business School’s Flickr profile; anyone wishing to submit a picture should send a file of no larger than 500kb to bsalumni@ncl.ac.uk.

Here is a selection from the past year or so…

Emirates Sky Cargo, Dubai. Simon Manville, MBA

Waters, Hyderabad, India.

Dan Chapman, International Business Management MA

28 West Yorkshire Comprehensive Research Network, Leeds University, UK. Simon Douglas, EMBA

Plays with words, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. Liz Hardy, Business Management BA Hons

Attract China, Beijing, China.

Evan Saunders, Business Management BA Hons

Dream Laboratory, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. Glen Kemp, MBA

Ernst and Young, Times Square, New York. Asel Baimuratova, Business Management BA Hons

Acrelormittal, London.

Rohan Mitra, Business and Economic Studies BA

John Lewis, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. Barry Blamire, Business Management BA Hons

Novo Nordisk, Beijing.

Caroline Zhang, HRM MA

KPMG, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. Dean Harris, Economics BA

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Walsall Hospitals NHS Trust, UK. Nadeem Moghal, EMBA

Stryker, Michigan, USA. Mike Hall, MBA

Talent Analytics Corp, Massachusetts, USA. Michael Kennedy, E-Business and Information Systems MSc

CanDo Group, Adelaide, Australia.

Kath Milne, MBA

Direct Shipping Group, Hong Kong. George Liu, Economics and Financial Analysis BA Hons, MBA

Maui, Jackie Bardsley, Economics and Accounting BA Hons

Working from home, Amsterdam.

Tim Sollis, Business Management BA Hons

Capital Solutions Group, Canary Wharf, London. Ben Walmsley, Economics BA Swiss International Airlines, Shanghai, China. Jessica Zhang, International Business Management MA

Newcastle University Business School The Review 2013-14: Society Matters

The new-world MBA Lisa Thomas, Business Development Manager, assesses the evolution of the business world’s most established qualification

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t goes without saying that times have changed dramatically since the first MBA was offered by Harvard University back in 1908. In an increasingly fragmented, global marketplace, business schools – and the full-time MBA in particular – have to compete and adapt like never before to stay relevant.

or an engineer. This makes answering the most frequently asked admissions question quite challenging: what is your business school looking for in an MBA candidate?

In the last three years, a range of issues beyond its control has hit the UK full-time MBA market. The UK Border Agency’s decision to abolish the poststudy work visa resulted in a drop in the number of applications from international students and some universities were forced to pull their programmes from the market. An increase in the number of MBA programmes available and the range and flexibility of delivery methods has resulted in one key fact: in order to survive, business schools need to provide what the market demands.

Most European schools are looking for individuals with postgraduate work experience, and at the Business School, we’re no different. Experiential learning is at the heart of what we deliver and without previous exposure to the workplace, it is difficult for students to apply theory to practice effectively. The exact nature of work experience varies hugely, as does academic background, which is part of what creates the kind of environment where students learn as much from their classmates as they do from the academics.

I’ve spent my professional career working for a number of UK business schools and have had the opportunity to meet and work alongside a wonderfully diverse range of full-time MBA candidates. From investment bankers to social entrepreneurs, inventors to Olympians, I’ve recognised the importance of diversifying your network and the great benefit in learning from your peers. It’s fantastic to watch as group dynamics develop and an idea is taken from the page of a business plan to the global business stage.

Over the last few years, I’ve also witnessed a change in the backgrounds of candidates joining MBA programmes. No longer is the classroom dominated by consultants and financiers from Fortune 500 companies; you’re as likely to sit alongside a doctor

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The key question – how do I get in?

Graduates rarely forget their MBA application process, which can sometimes seem like an insurmountable wall. My recommendation is, why not think of it as a job application? You wouldn’t apply for a job without reading the job specification and person description, and you shouldn’t apply for an MBA without researching the programme and looking through the entry requirements. I always recommend that candidates cover what I like to call the what/why/who/ how – identify what it is about the MBA programme that interests you most, explain why you are interested in undertaking an MBA at this particular stage in your career, describe who you are as a professional and your achievements to date and finally, explain how you plan to leverage the MBA opportunity.

Are MBA rankings important?

Approach with caution …

I would liken MBA rankings to the Michelin Star system in restaurants – we know that it benchmarks excellence but do we really understand the criteria used to qualify?

Let’s take the 2013 Financial Times (FT) Global MBA ranking; did you know that 10 per cent of the scoring is calculated according to research published in relevant academic journals? Or that survey responses from the graduating class of 2009 accounted for a whopping 59 per cent? Moving on to The Economist’s full-time MBA ranking; did you know that 20 per cent is based on salary increase? Or that the average GMAT score is considered three times as important as average years of work experience? Rankings have long been a source of controversy and, based on the few facts provided here, I’m sure you can see why.

While one person may consider a classmate with a GMAT of 700+ to be a real asset to their group, another may favour a classmate with 20 years’ industry experience.

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My advice to prospective MBAs would be to really understand the various MBA rankings before you base your decisions on them. Depending on how they’re constructed, any school could top a rankings list so you need to assess which are most relevant to you.

Will the MBA survive?

The reputation of a business school continues to rest on the quality of, and its commitment to, its MBA programmes. Until international accreditation criteria change or rankings cease to be published, I would argue that the MBA has a long and dynamic future.

Regardless of whether a candidate opts for a full-time, part-time executive, or distance MBA programme, they’ll be investing in an experience and network that will mean far more to them than the three letters that will follow their names.

If you are interested in pursuing an MBA or other executive education qualification, contact lisa.thomas@newcastle.ac.uk

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Š FilmKraft Productions (India)

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Newcastle University Business School The Review 2013-14: Society Matters

Marketing the Indian film industry

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evika Shroff Nihalani had no idea she would end up in the huge business of Indian film when she graduated from her International Business Management degree. In a break between planning the publicity for one of India’s big new releases, Krrish 3, she answers questions about her career, her time at the Business School, and her view of the future.

Q: Can you tell us a bit about your consultative role in the launch of Krrish 3?

A: Krrish 3 is a film about the first Indian superhero.

It’s a trilogy. My role is that of a marketing consultant on the project. I oversee all of the communication strategy, marketing activities, use of the artists’ time, and allocation of the media budget.

Q: Indian film-making gets a great deal of attention around the world – how does the industry compare to other nations?

A: The Indian film industry is one that’s been making films ever since we became an independent nation.

We are the largest film-producing nation. Our films have the widest reach, going into countries where there are no Indians, excluding Japan, where our films are being dubbed.

Q: Did you see your career panning out in the way it has – what crucial junctures have there been for you?

A: Actually, not at all. I graduated from Newcastle in 2001, then I returned to India, to work in marketing for the food and beverage business, before moving onto advertising. My interest and qualifications were always in the marketing space, but film is something that came my way, through advertising, in 2005, four years into my career.

Q: You’ve worked for some major entertainment companies – what advice would you give others wanting to get into the industry?

A: Keep your ear to the ground, there’s way more to learn in the field than in any book.

Q: What big trends do you see emerging in the world of entertainment branding and marketing?

A: Digital – but then again, that’s not really a trend.

It’s a phenomenon.

Q: How did your degree at Newcastle contribute towards your career path? Any memorable people or moments?

A: Newcastle was one of the most memorable experiences of my life! It gave me the confidence to assert myself, in both favourable and non-favourable situations. The people I met have been friends for over 10 years – I can go almost anywhere in the world, and I have a friend!

Q: What things do you miss most about Newcastle, or rather what things do you treasure from your time here?

A: I miss everything about Newcastle, even the weather! I treasure the memories... of people, places... most of all, of what it’s made me.

Q: What excites you most about the future?

A: Everything excites me about the future! Waking up to see what new media the youth is latching on to.

What film opens to what figures. What the latest communication trends are! What new markets are opening up to us as marketeers.

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Newcastle University Business School The Review 2013-14: Society Matters

Answering the call Meet Roy Sandbach, the man on a mission to build North East innovation orth East England has a wonderful innovation heritage and today has some outstanding, cutting-edge examples of innovation in companies large and small.

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How can the region make the most of its innovation capability, delivering prosperity, improving society and creating jobs?

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That’s the conundrum that’s going to occupy Roy Sandbach’s mind for most of the next year. The Business School’s tenth David Goldman Visiting Professor of Innovation and Enterprise has spent more than three decades applying innovation principles in the private sector, and he believes it’s possible to find a successful formula.

‘However,’ he says, ‘the first thing the North East has to do is to commit to working together.’

‘It’s very easy to become insular, but in reality we’re in competition with centres of innovation worldwide.

There needs to be a more intentional, rigorous and coordinated dialogue.’

‘We can’t afford to waste time on focusing and competing internally, because the future of the region depends on investment and jobs that are highly likely to come from outside. We have to set up some strategic dialogue with partners across the world, showing our skills and capabilities. For this we need all of the muscle in the region working together.’

For this to work, Roy says that companies, local authorities, universities and organisations must be willing to embrace ‘open innovation’; to share certain knowledge, and team up where necessary to achieve a bigger aim.

Roy may have been brought up in Sunderland, but he describes himself as ‘a true European’. His career with Procter & Gamble has given him a taste of Frankfurt, Rome and Brussels, launching consumer products and managing innovation programmes.

So how did it work for P&G? ‘P&G has outstanding internal R&D within its 26 innovation centres but has shared its innovation needs around the world through its Connect and Develop strategy, searching for solutions. This required a set of engagement practices and a significant degree of openness.

‘It had exceptional networks – inside and outside – which allowed us to harness innovation. It had outstanding training in innovation management and innovation culture.’

Maximising the North East’s reputation for innovation was a key recommendation in Lord Andrew Adonis’ independent economic review of the region, which was published in April. His team also called for a strategy and business plan for making it work in a more coordinated way. Roy is working with the North East Local Enterprise Partnership to build that strategy, and he believes there are four ingredients that could push it in the right direction.

‘Not all the bright people work for you,’ he says.

The second ingredient is to identify core regional strengths, and build on them so that they’re developed into powerful innovation hubs, designed to tackle needs on a global level.

‘We’ve got national centres such as NaREC and the Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) that act as innovation hubs, and we have the capacity to set up more in life sciences, subsea and design. However, they don’t just happen. They need to be managed with a vision of open, dynamic collaboration. In this context we need to leverage our great networks.’

‘We have to know what we‘re good at, identify the right people who need what we’ve got, and get out there in a coordinated manner.

‘If I’m a VP of open innovation in a major multinational, I’m looking at where to invest. I may have some activity here, but I’m not necessarily aware of wider activities in the region. We need individuals to get that to my attention.’

The final two components are to stress the importance of innovation to businesses themselves, and to ensure there is finance there to reduce the risk.

‘I lived in Germany for several years, where there’s a state innovation strategy in place. It also stressed the importance of regional and local banking, whose aims were consistent with the state innovation strategy.’

‘The first requirement of any innovative environment is that it actively matches what’s possible with what’s needed. You do that through dialogue. The only way I can find out what you need is to ask you, and the only way you can find out if it’s possible is to ask what I can do for you.

So can a formula be transferred from successful application in business to an ambitious region?

‘There are some massive opportunities for the region to deliver that for some very big organisations.

I know major companies that have up to 100 different programmes with individuals in the North East, but no coordinated engagement with the region.

‘It may be a tough task to get people to engage on all of these things, but if we can we’ll really be a powerful force. The sky’s the limit.’

‘The killer issue is knowing what’s going on today and using that to build dialogue with the key players in those areas. It’s all about people.

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Newcastle University Business School The Review 2013-14: Society Matters

Community leadership and social change In conversation with Dr Tyrone Pitsis ack in the 1980s, the heart was ripped out of Geeveston, Tasmania. Geeveston was a forestry town, drawing hundreds of jobs from one of the largest sawmills in the country. However, in 1982, the APM pulp mill closed. It spluttered briefly into life again in 1988, but was gone again within months.

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That was the start of a decline which hit the town hard.

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When people talk about what happened next, most mention the work of tireless local postmaster and Huonville Council deputy mayor Laurie Dillon. But crucially, the force that revived Geeveston came from the efforts of an entire community, working together in a network of committees to achieve something for themselves.

Many younger residents had left the town to hunt for work. So the effort began with the elderly occupants of Geeveston. They started with a plan to spruce up the tattered streets, pulling up weeds, planting new trees and re-paving footpaths. These people – many in their seventies – would later become ‘green jackets’, who would use their knowledge to welcome and guide tourists.

The government started to notice, chipping in with cash to improve the roads and convert unkempt orchard land into a park.

Then the town tackled the willows that were damaging the banks of the Kermandie River, a project that took years. The government soon announced plans for a $4.5 million forest air walk that would allow people to walk through the treetops.

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Businesses started to return. House prices doubled.

A recovering timber industry started to work in harmony with a new tourism industry. And locals chipped in over $600,000 to launch a community bank to replace those that left.

That was by no means the end of the story for Geeveston, but it’s an example of how democratic, inclusive organisation can produce results. So why have we often been so reluctant to stray from our cliché of the all-powerful leader in business?

The Business School’s Tyrone Pitsis has been investigating strategy and the structure of organisations for years, in both Australia and the UK. ‘We love to talk about the leader as this almostdeified being, but the idea that a community can’t survive without a strong leader is not correct.

‘Most people that lead organisations know that their power is only there while people pay attention. We like to believe an organisation functions and prospers because of the decisions and power of one person, but under such conditions organisations and societies become increasingly controlled and disengaged. People can resist, they can ignore, they can no longer show goodwill, counter-organise and create alternative power flows. Once the coach has lost the dressing room – as they say – nothing’s going to save them.

‘Ask yourself what happens if you start to look at leadership not as an individual thing, but something that’s relational? What if leadership is about everyone being able to participate, and everyone being represented? Then you start to see the death of the leader as a CEO, and the birth of a leader as a diplomat.’

Why we’re attached to dominant leaders What do we mean when we say we need a leader?

In every town, we see statues of legendary figures.

We see former presidents carved out of rock, former mayors watching over town centres, and former CEOs looming in lobbies.

In times of trouble, we yearn for one person to change our direction, and the story of a successful company is usually told by focusing on the traits and thoughts of its CEO. ‘We tend to define leadership in terms of unique personal qualities in an individual,’ says Tyrone.

‘If I asked someone what makes a good leader, they would mostly come up with traits such as honesty, humour, integrity, bravery. They don’t tell you anything about the leader, they are just labels taken for granted.

You could draw up a list of which personality traits define a leader, but you could just as easily find the same personality traits if you sample another group of people, such as prisoners.

‘Some leaders have run a company but have flawed characters, broken relationships or had affairs. You can talk about the importance of emotional intelligence, but there are some who have achieved the pinnacles of career success while actually having all forms of mental issues such as personality disorders.’

Tyrone says the concept of the dominant leader has been repeatedly stressed in our culture. Religion exalts those who claim to be able to represent or communicate with God. Warfare advertises the idea of the brave, controlling commander. And capitalism celebrates the status of the CEO with the most riches or power.

‘We like to think of everything at the level of the individual, which is a fundamental aspect of capitalism. It focuses on the accumulation of power and wealth.

‘People tend to become leaders because they have access to networks that choose leaders.

Some people break the mould, but they do so by espousing the story of the individual accumulation of wealth and power. The mantra is ‘I was poor but now I’m rich and powerful’.

‘In doing so, they don’t break down the deep structures in societies. They just reinforce them, by saying there’s only one way, and that is wealth accumulation.

‘Even the riots two years ago reinforce the system.

People did not riot against inequality and poverty, they rioted to steal Nikes and Sony televisions, and other status symbols. They symbolically were saying we want what you have, not we want something different for society.’

Tyrone believes there are a number of other reasons why leaders are so attractive to us. Firstly, telling the story of how one person changed the world is far neater than a tale that has multiple characters, different layers and complex systems. Also, it’s comforting to think of someone there who's making everything safe, and numbing the fear that things will – inevitably – change and fade away. There’s also the tempting possibility that things will happen without people having to wade in.

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Newcastle University Business School The Review 2013-14: Society Matters

‘There’s a great bit in The Simpsons, where Homer runs for the post of sanitation commissioner under the slogan ‘Let Someone Else Do It?’ and wins the election.

Soon the city is full of rubbish.

‘That really gets to the heart of what can happen in a society. You can get governments and executives becoming narcissistic and seeing their behaviour as natural and okay. You get people excluded from participating, and saying that’s the way it is. It’s the normalisation of deviance and incompetence.’

However, this vision of the dominant leader can become a problem when you're trying to push people in a new direction.

There’s a quote in Adam Smith’s 1759 book The Theory of Moral Sentiments that talks about the man who’s ‘so enamoured with the supposed beauty of his own ideal plan of government that he cannot suffer the smallest deviation from any part of it’.

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‘In the great chessboard of human society, every single piece has a principle of motion of its own, altogether different from that which the legislature might choose to impress upon it. If these two principles coincide and act in the same direction, the game of human society will go on easily and harmoniously… if they are opposite or different, the game will go on miserably, and the society must be at all times in the highest degree of disorder.’

So, in short, while our culture promotes the idea that one ring will rule them all, the ability to lead coherently only lasts as long as the people around that leader allow it.

Tyrone says, ‘Everyone’s reality is different. When a leader comes in and says something is a reality, it’s only true as long as you’re willing to see it like that.

‘You get these remarkable CEOs that come in and think they’re going to change everything. However, they run into these deeply embedded structures and don’t manage to change anything.’

The alternatives to chaos Gerard Fairtlough was a high-ranking executive with Shell for several years. After that, he founded a biotechnology company called Celltech which was sold for over $2 million.

In 2005, he published a book called The Three Ways

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of Getting Things Done, in which he argued that business people are way too hung up on the idea of hierarchy.

He argues there are two credible alternatives to hierarchy. One is the idea of heterarchy, a system of partners that you’ve probably seen in firms of accountants and lawyers. Another is the idea of responsible autonomy, in which individuals within a group can decide what happens, but have to take responsibility for what happens.

Tyrone says, ‘Organisations can learn a lot from the way social enterprises happen, and the way movements grow and prosper. It’s a handful of people coming together with the same aim and tending a community garden, or providing a safe space for people to make food.

‘Community leadership is an amazing form of leadership, as you’re cultivating people and ideas and growing things together. It’s a different metaphor to just beating something into people.’

Take, for example, the case of The Old Crown pub in Hesket, Newmarket. Village residents clubbed together to buy and run the pub and adjacent microbrewery as a cooperative, leasing it to the tenants and operating it as a self-sustaining initiative.

The move increased visitor numbers, led to a new dining room and broadband ICT facility, and increased turnover from £90,000 to £260,000 in 2012.

Speaking as part of a case study by EUKN, founding member Julian Ross says, ‘For me, the first and most important lesson is that ordinary people can achieve extraordinary things. Leadership and vision are important in this respect. If you combine them with commitment and a lot of hard work, the rest will follow.’

The same approach doesn’t work everywhere, but it’s not just a community formula.

Foundry Group partner and start-up theorist Brad Feld lives in Boulder, Colorado. The city has grown into a renowned home for start-ups due to the ‘leadership’ of entrepreneurs working alongside the ‘feeders’ of universities, governments and investors.

In an interview with Technology Review, he says: ‘A hierarchical approach doesn’t recognise that the brilliance of what happens around innovation is, in many cases, simply due to a network.’

Brazilian industrial machinery company Semco responded to a dark spell with a radical and gradual approach which did away with job titles, rotated the role of CEO between several senior managers, allowed executives to set their own pay, made financial information available to everyone, and let workers set their own hours.

Compensation was linked to performance, workers received a share of net profits from their division, and the company was split into smaller, more agile units of around 150 people each.

Of course, there’s also the example of global giant Google, a famously ‘flat’ organisation in which senior

management is hands on, while individuals are encouraged to take responsibility for more challenging projects, and even spend 20 per cent of their time on personal creative ideas that might benefit the company.

In their own ways, each of these set-ups promote innovation by including individuals within the organisation, rather than crushing 90 per cent of the workforce under the cold stone of a hierarchical pyramid.

‘To me, democracy is a natural attitude,’ says Tyrone.

‘In a more democratic set-up, my role as a leader will not be to control you, it will be how I represent you, and how I negotiate with you to get to some level of collaboration and sense of community.’

In a more democratic set-up, my role as a leader will not be to control you, it will be how I represent you, and how I negotiate with you to get to some level of collaboration and sense of community.

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Newcastle University Business School The Review 2013-14: Society Matters

Working at No.10 Ben Crosland, No.10 Downing Street press officer and 2008 Business School graduate ince graduating from his marketing and management degree at the Business School five years ago, Ben Crosland has made his way, via the City and the Treasury, to No.10 Downing Street, where he is one of around 20 press officers dealing with national government policy on a daily basis.

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His journey has been far from ordinary, and driven largely by his own interests, without set destinations in mind.

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As an undergraduate, Ben successfully applied to work in the City of London during his third year – as an analyst intern with Morgan Stanley, and then Schroders, a major asset management firm.

‘I never set my heart on working in the City, but the Morgan Stanley internship was recommended to me and sounded like a good opportunity,’ Ben explains.

‘The Schroders internship, which I bolted on at the end, was the one that really gave me an experience of the relationship between economics, financial services and current affairs.

‘In my final year, Obama had just been elected, and I had the opportunity to blend subjects like economics and political marketing and campaigning, which had really sparked an interest.’

After graduating, Ben secured a role with HM Treasury, working in its Financial Services Group, before landing his current role behind the most famous doors in the country.

While a ‘typical day’ might not exist for Ben in his current role, he explains the main focus of his job – influencing the national and international news agenda on behalf of the Government. ‘The media need us as much as we need them, so we try to ensure we get good coverage of our policy agenda, while providing media with what they need, which is the right people at the right time. It’s a strategic role, but very logistical too.’

Like most press offices today, Ben’s team works with a mix of new and emerging media as well as more traditional channels, ‘We’re harnessing online, especially social, media more and more – the No.10 Twitter feed is going from strength to strength, for example. But many of our journalist contacts exist in the Westminster bubble, so there is still an emphasis on briefing political journalists face-to-face on government business.’

Ben’s modest, understated manner belies an aptitude for high-profile, pressurised environments that certainly wouldn’t suit everyone.

‘I like jobs with a bit of a play about them,’ he admits, ‘I wouldn’t have been suited to a role in a big corporate, or a run-of-the-mill job. I really enjoy influencing the media and ‘being in the room’ when things are happening.’

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When asked about highlights so far, he enthuses, ‘Working at G8 was inspiring. Even working in the background at an event like that is a real privilege.’

And the best and worst things about working at No.10? ‘The best thing is probably walking through those doors every day – it’s a real honour and a unique experience. The worst is probably getting to your desk to find that Larry (the Camerons’ cat) has been sleeping on it, leaving hair everywhere.’

Reflecting on the impact the Business School has had on his career, Ben believes his third year in industry was pivotal, and credits his degree programme director, Stuart Challinor, with giving him the inspiration to come to the Business School.

‘I chose Newcastle over other, good universities, mainly because of Stuart; he believed so passionately in the value of the third year in industry and, in the

end, that made all the difference to my decision to study there, and, ultimately, take the path I have.’

So, what advice would Ben give to today’s undergraduates thinking about their future careers?

‘Make what you study relevant to you, choose subjects you are interested in, and get involved with things that interest you. It’s a cliché, but you really don’t appreciate the time and opportunities you have at your disposal until you leave university.’

And with that, sirens sound in the background, signalling the arrival of the King of Bahrain, and time for Ben to go back through the doors of No.10.

We wish Ben all the best in what promises to be an exciting and illustrious career.

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There is still a glaring oversight when it comes to understanding the behaviour of rogue employees.

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Newcastle University Business School The Review 2013-14: Society Matters

The enemy within Why we need to examine the human end of employee cyber crime r Robert Willison’s research has primarily addressed the decision-making processes and behaviour involved in employee computer abuse. Recently, he has looked at how motivations for abuse may actually be created in the organisational context, as a result of disgruntlement.

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While the threat from hackers and viruses fuel security concerns for organisations, the problems posed by employee computer crime should not be underestimated.

Perceptions of computer crime are informed by the media, but stories of insider abuse are rarely to be found in newspapers or heard on the radio. This is not because employee computer crime does not occur.

It does, but organisations are reluctant to bring in law enforcement agencies, owing to fears of reputation damage. Some insights into this threat are, however, provided by industry surveys.

In 2008, for example, a PricewaterhouseCoopers report found that, of the respondents in large organisations (250+ employees), 57 per cent reported their worst security breach to have occurred internally.

In the same year, a global survey noted that respondents had identified current, but also former, employees as representing their largest threat. This finding was echoed by a 2010 report, which found that 19 per cent of respondents believed employees to form a major threat – a figure second only to hacking (26 per cent).

Recent evidence has also pointed to the possible motivating influences of the global recession. One survey indicated that, in 2009, 34 per cent of ‘European’ respondents believed that risks to company data had increased as a consequence of job losses.

By 2011, this figure had risen to 42 per cent.

Although these figures provide some insight into the magnitude of employee computer abuse, it is safe to

say that it only takes one well-placed individual to bring down an organisation.

These individuals are different from your ‘average’ criminal in that they spend a considerable proportion of the day in the very context in which the crime is committed. As a result, they have ample opportunity to ‘case’ their environment for security loopholes.

Knowledge and resources used in the execution of their legitimate duties can inform/assist criminal behaviour and the motive can even be created inhouse. Indeed, in a study of 49 cases of computer sabotage, conducted between Carnegie Mellon and the US Secret Service, the motive for 88 per cent of cases was a work-related grievance.

In a bid to address the insider threat, organisations have made advances in understanding the need to educate and train their staff in their information security responsibilities. There is, however, still a glaring oversight when it comes to understanding the behaviour of rogue employees.

Right now, considerable funding has been given to support institutions of technical expertise. Eight UK universities were recently awarded the status of ‘Academic Centre in Cyber Security Research’ by GCHQ. In partnership with the Research Council’s Global Uncertainties Programme (RCUK) and the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS), these universities are particularly strong in the area of computer science. But to really tackle the problem of cyber crime within organisations, this expertise must be complemented with other knowledge bases and skill sets. Drawing on such diversity will provide a more encompassing and accurate understanding of the problem domain. This will further assist in identifying different points of intervention and, thereby, expand the range of safeguards open to practitioners.

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Newcastle University Business School The Review 2013-14: Society Matters

For example, to understand the criminal decisionmaking processes with regard to employee computer abuse requires knowledge gleaned from sociology and criminology. This knowledge provides a basis for understanding what motivates individuals, and it would, therefore, benefit an organisation to be able to address the root causes of the problem as opposed to merely addressing the symptoms of this ‘illness’.

Failure to draw on additional knowledge bases will lead to the maintenance of an incomplete understanding of the problem and inhibit the development of innovative solutions.

Understanding disgruntlement: a strategy

for avoiding cyber crime Dr Willison’s research has drawn heavily from HR studies, which have looked at how an employee can develop a feeling of unfairness in the organisational context. These studies have looked at how one employee will compare their position to that of a colleague’s.

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For example, if employees ‘A’ and ‘B’ have identical responsibilities, work the same number of hours, but ‘A’ discovers that ‘B’ earns 10 per cent more, then ‘A’ may feel disgruntled. Similar feelings can be developed in other situations where organisational ‘rewards’ such as promotion are at stake. This is particularly the case where ‘A’ feels ‘B’ is less committed to their job, works fewer hours and yet is still rewarded with a promotion, while ‘A’ is overlooked.

HR studies have further noted how the manner in which policies are executed, for deciding these ‘rewards’, can also influence disgruntlement. As an example, it has been noted how bias, which serves the personal interests of a decision-maker, can lead an employee to feel they have been treated unfairly. Related to the enactment of these polices is the need to offer employees the ability to appeal against a decision perceived as unjust, and therefore offer them a ‘voice’.

This helps to assuage feelings of disgruntlement and avoids the situation where an employee’s feelings of resentment are allowed to fester.

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Understanding disgruntlement represents one area in which the motives for employee computer abuse can be understood and addressed. Through the implementation of appropriate HR safeguards, companies can help to forestall employees becoming motivated to embark on criminal activity.

Dr Willison’s research has also examined how forms of disgruntlement, based on strong levels of emotion, can impact the efforts of an organisation to deter potential acts of employee computer abuse.

Organisations may attempt to instil in employees a sense of deterrence by educating them about information security policies, making them aware of computer monitoring, and providing them with SETA training (security education training and awareness). However, when disgruntlement leads to strong emotions, such as anger, this effect may have little influence. Highly agitated employees are not in a position to consider the ‘rational’ consequences of their actions and may commit computer abuse in the heat of the moment.

As a consequence, it seems prudent to try and understand the conditions under which disgruntlement leads to these high emotional states, and implement the requisite HR control. In doing so, not only are companies more likely to avoid cyber crime, there is also an obvious, wider benefit to understanding how employees can be more satisfied and fulfilled at work.

Dr Robert Willison, DBA Director and Deputy Director of Doctoral Programmes

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Highly agitated employees are not in a position to consider the ‘rational’ consequences of their actions and may commit computer abuse in the heat of the moment.

Newcastle University Business School The Review 2013-14: Society Matters

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A life-changing placement In the space of one placement year, Business Management undergraduate Natalie Diver has achieved great things – from pitching to Sir Richard Branson to being appointed a national Student Ambassador by government. Perhaps more importantly, she has challenged herself to experiences that will benefit her for the rest of her life. A truly outstanding individual, Natalie shares with us some of the big lessons she has learned from one incredible year away from studies.

1. Trust your gut instinct This time one year ago, I had just finished filming a BBC3 documentary focused on business investment with Innocent Smoothies founder, Richard Reed. I had been working for Baggers Originals, a start-up children’s rainwear company, on a short-term placement offered by the University’s Newcastle Work Experience scheme.

I was preparing to move on to a year-long placement as a marketing assistant in a law firm. However, after a few months of my year-long placement, I realised that I needed a role that challenged me on a daily basis, gave me heaps of responsibility and, most of all, where I was free to be creative and entrepreneurial.

At this point, my gut instinct was telling me it was time to do something about it. Subsequently, I decided to change my placement midway and go back to work for Baggers Originals as a business development manager. Although many people thought it would be a mistake, I truly believe that you should always trust your gut instinct, and I’m glad I did.

2. Be confident in your ability I began my new placement in January 2013 and I didn’t look back. Within weeks of being part of the team again, we were preparing to pitch our business to Sir Richard Branson for the backing of a start-up loan. This was the second time I had been lucky enough to meet Sir Richard and it was an experience I will never forget. We were all nervous about the pitch, but we felt confident in our product and were a very supportive team.

I believe that you should always be confident in your ability in situations like these. If we weren’t good enough to be pitching the business to a top entrepreneur, we wouldn’t have been invited along. I certainly find pitching a lot easier after that presentation!

3. Get organised As well as my placement, I was (and still am) President of the Entrepreneur Society within the University. It was a huge struggle to balance full-time work with this role and I have undoubtedly learned how to handle multiple pressures and deadlines. It was imperative for me to be well-organised so that neither Baggers nor the Society suffered from my other commitments.

It was through my work on the Society and previous entrepreneurial involvement that James Caan, former Dragon’s Den judge, got in touch with me and asked me to visit his offices in Mayfair for a meeting.

At the meeting, myself, James Caan and a handful of other students and businesspeople, discussed young entrepreneurship across the country and ways in which this could be encouraged. It was then that I was invited to Buckingham Palace to be appointed as a Student Ambassador for the £117 million government Start Up Loan Scheme, set up to encourage young entrepreneurship. This was an incredible experience and I felt extremely honoured to be selected.

4. Grab opportunities Through my placement, I was nominated for ‘Student Employee of the Year’ in the ‘Off-Campus’ category.

I then succeeded in winning the title of ‘Off-Campus Student Employee of the Year’, and went on to win the award of ‘National Student Employee of the Year’!

This is something that will undoubtedly make me stand out among other students. I have always been taught that you should grab opportunities with both hands, so when the chance to be nominated for this award came around, I realised that I had nothing to lose by being put forward.

Ask yourself: what’s the worst that could happen?

5. Make time for yourself After finishing my full-time placement, I decided to volunteer in South East Asia. There were six of us volunteering in a rural jungle in Northern Thailand, teaching English to a hill tribe and helping with manual labour. We lived with the hill tribe for four weeks in bamboo huts, and by the time we left we had made a lasting impact on the community through infrastructure we had put in place.

This was an incredibly challenging environment to live in but it was definitely a character-building experience.

After volunteering, I travelled for six weeks around Thailand and enjoyed some ‘me time’! I think that it is incredibly important to manage your work-life balance well. As they say: work hard, play hard!

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Organisations get paid for what can be counted, rather than what the actual local impact is‌ If you treat the world in this way, what you’re effectively doing is treading down a lump in the carpet that comes up somewhere else.

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Newcastle University Business School The Review 2013-14: Society Matters

Beware big data Dr Rob Wilson talks about the perils of ignoring local context in large-scale statistics

s a society, we love figures. But we have our favourites. These are our comfort blanket figures. They tell us whether our water is hot or cold, whether our schools are good, whether our business is doing well or whether our economy is likely to topple over before lunch.

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But sometimes – just sometimes – they lie right to our faces.

Take, for example, Gross Domestic Product. It’s often waved around as an economic bellwether for a country, indicating how it’s getting on and how its progress compares to others. But it doesn’t necessarily show whether one country’s worked more hours to get there, or the size of the gulf between rich and poor domestically. And because it measures what a country produces and sells rather than what it owns, a hurricane that sweeps through a city can actually raise GDP in the immediate aftermath even if it flattens a swathe of factories. That’s because the money spent on the restoration registers, while the loss of infrastructure doesn’t.

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Newcastle University Business School The Review 2013-14: Society Matters

That’s not to say that we should all just toss this statistic in the rubbish right away. But should conversations about the performance of a country or organisation really be focused on the same figure, or on the distinctive factors that where you’re standing right now?

Rob Wilson sees a lot of statistics like these. He’s been researching and working on public sector information system projects for over 15 years. He recently co-wrote a book with Ian McLoughlin and Mike Martin on digital government, and how integrating a variety of systems with headline figures doesn’t necessarily lead to an all-seeing efficient public sector nirvana. According to Rob, a better approach would be to move away from the dream of one big system, and focus on what matters to the unique, individual areas.

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‘The idea that you can collect data and just mush it together creates a problem,’ he says. ‘What we want in situations like this is to be able to easily say, ‘You’re doing badly, and you’re doing well’. But we end up spending our time collecting things that might not mean much to us at all, rather than having conversations about what’s required and what might be valuable locally.’

Why we mush stuff, and what happens Essentially, the main reason we mush things together in this way is that we want to track progress.

Supercharged by developments in digital technology, the ideal is that we can integrate all of our information into a huge database, and draw out universally recognised statistics that can quickly show us the progress of a certain region or department. Then we can set targets to encourage improvement, and pop back later to see how they did.

However, Rob argues that what’s often missing from this database is context.

‘Virtualising the tool doesn’t virtualise the conversation.

It’s tempting to have a one-size-fits-all for every profession and every community, but effective governance only comes from relationships. If I’m in Whitehall, my relationship with you might be that I send you an e-mail, but if I’m your community worker, I know you and you know me. We’d like some frameworks in which to operate, but they’d mostly

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be ethical frameworks about good behaviour. The real conversations have to come locally.

‘There’s an idea that you can control from the centre, and that the assessment of an older person is surely the same in Newcastle as it is in Coventry? However, a time frame target with no context at all doesn’t take into account the difference between an area where a social worker drives 200 miles, and one in which they just get a quick bus across town. It becomes an algorithm with no relation to the local economy.

‘If the biggest crime in one area is speeding, they still have to write the same crime reduction plan as a big city, even though their issues and resources are different.

‘People talk about postcode prescribing and how bad it is. But surely if you’ve got a lot of diabetes in your area, it makes sense to spend more on dealing with that?’

There’s also an issue around who sees what, and when. While making information available to everyone can sometimes lead to things being spotted, how valuable is that information without context and can it also lead to people having access to information they simply don’t need to know?

Integrated systems also offer the prospect of universal indicators of performance. But if you know you’re only being judged on a couple of figures, what’s to stop you just focusing on making those figures say what you want them to say?

Take, for example, the UK Government’s Work Programme, the controversial programme that pays outsourced providers to find work for the long-term unemployed. This year, a report emerged that many providers were inappropriately pushing jobseekers toward self-employment. This fell under the category of employment in the Government’s targets, and thus providers got a payout in the same way as if they’d found the candidate a nine-to-five job.

‘You’ve got deeply rooted statistics in the private, public and third sectors, where people just fill in the form,’ says Rob. ‘Organisations get paid for what can be counted, rather than what the actual local impact is.

‘If you treat the world in this way, what you’re effectively doing is treading down a lump in the carpet that comes up somewhere else. It’s created a perverse system in which the people at the centre of these relationships are screwed.’

Why kittens are evil, and conversations aren’t In 2012, an event was arranged in Newcastle to discuss why setting payment by results wasn’t necessarily the best thing for organisations. It’s since turned into a series, travelling around the country and encouraging people to talk about how dumping these counter-intuitive targets improved the quality of their work.

Some may baulk at the idea of removing such blanket targets and operating more locally. To some, removing these methods of tracking progress is madness, possibly even heretical. It’d be like saying… well, that kittens are evil, right?

Yet we know there’s a disconnect between what our figures say and what’s happening. We get that feeling every time directors get performance bonuses despite failing services, or press reports highlight success we simply don’t see around us.

‘Statistics might lie, but what is often more perverse is our credulity in taking them at face value and believing them.

‘The purpose of the Kittens Are Evil events is to say that you should do something because it’s the right thing to do, rather than because it’s something you can get measured on. It’s about saying that youth workers should respond to the problems they face, rather than just focus on reducing drugs use and teenage pregnancy because those are the things that are being measured.’

Rob’s interests led him to jointly set up a Living Lab at the University, which brings together academics, public sector and industry partners to discuss and attempt to solve complex problems.

So instead of having an isolated department working to solve a big issue – possibly with misleading targets – you might have a scientist, a sociologist and a council engineer working together to deal with urban flooding, each bringing their own perspective and expertise to the problem.

‘It’s about helping people to think through multifaceted problems from different perspectives, and provoke them into sense-making through research and documentary analysis,’ he says.

‘People have these ideas about what the world is, and to them that’s a mirror. But to someone else with a different perspective, that might be a window.

‘It’s not that information systems are a bad idea. It’s just that you can take a more holistic view. We’re creating a neutral space where people can learn from each other. If information needs to flow, we can discuss what sort of information should it be and who decides where it goes.’

Rob believes these conversations are central to how networks should be structured. He argues that there should be a focus on locally focused systems which know what the community needs them to deliver, but are also designed to be open to conversations when required.

‘The idea that we should integrate everything in the public sector or an organisation is a waste of time.

You should be integrated to an extent, but what’s more important is to be integrate-able and federated.

‘A lot of organisations now are trapped in frameworks that don’t mean anything to them, and they’re alienated. This is about having a conversation about what’s valuable locally, while still being open to talking to others when it matters.’

51

Newcastle University Business School The Review 2013-14: Society Matters

Dr Herbert Loebl 18.04.1923–28.01.2013

I

t was with great sadness that Newcastle University and the staff of the Business School learned of Dr Herbert Loebl’s passing, in January 2013.

One of the most inspirational influences in the Business School’s recent history, Dr Loebl was the funder and namesake of the Herbert Loebl Export Academy, which assists regional businesses in their aims to become global exporters of products and services. He contributed personally to the Academy’s work and was a powerful presence at the various workshops and seminars held in recent years.

Dr Loebl was born in Bamberg, Germany, and at the age of 16 fled with his family to Newcastle in 1939 as a refugee from Nazi Germany.

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After the war, he became a student at King’s College, Newcastle (now Newcastle University), graduating in 1949 with a BSc in Electrical Engineering. He was to return to the University on two further occasions, gaining a Master of Philosophy in 1978 and a PhD in 1985.

While at the University, Dr Loebl met Robert Joyce, a fellow graduate in electrical engineering and the son of an unemployed Jarrow shipyard worker. Together, Joyce and Loebl started their first company, specialising in electronics and scientific instruments, under a railway arch in Newcastle in 1951 with £200 worth of capital.

At the 2010 North East Business Executive of the Year Awards ceremony, he was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Professor Chris Brink, Vice-Chancellor, Newcastle University, said: ‘Herbert Loebl was a truly inspirational man who leaves a great legacy at our University.

‘An alumnus and honorary graduate – he was made an honorary Doctor of Science in 2003 – Dr Loebl maintained his close links with Newcastle University in many ways and over many years. He served on the University’s Court, our external governing body, for more than 40 years, and played an active role in our Business School, launching the Herbert Loebl Export Academy in his name.

‘The University benefited greatly from his energy, enthusiasm and vast experience and he will be sorely missed.’

Professor John Wilson, Director, the Business School, added: ‘In 2010, Dr Loebl’s passion for helping businesses in the region culminated in the launch of the Herbert Loebl Export Academy, which he funded and established at the Business School.

Today, there are four companies in the region that grew from the original Joyce, Loebl and Co Ltd: Loebl Ltd; Sevcon Ltd, of Team Valley; Applied Imaging Ltd, based at Times Square, Newcastle; and Phasor Ltd, based at Sunderland Enterprise Park.

‘Through the Academy, Dr Loebl provided North East SMEs with the knowledge and confidence to export around the world, and shared the lessons he wished ‘somebody had taught him’ when starting up his own business.

Dr Loebl has been widely decorated at home and abroad for his commitment to industrial development, and to the education of his employees. He was awarded an OBE in 1973 for Services to Exports, the Citizen’s Medal of the city of Bamberg in 1996, the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1997 and the Bavarian Order of Merit in 2001.

‘There is no doubt that Dr Loebl’s work changed lives in our region, and we are incredibly proud to have been associated with him through the Export Academy. We will work hard to ensure his legacy remains a part of our Business School’s future.’

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Herbert Loebl was a truly inspirational man who leaves a great legacy at our University.

Professor Chris Brink Vice-Chancellor, Newcastle University

Contact Newcastle University Business School 5 Barrack Road, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 4SE UK Tel: +44 (0) 191 208 1500

We would like to thank the following for the use of their illustrative material: Critical Tortoise; John Donoghue; FilmKraft Productions (India); Graeme Peacock; Simon Veit-Wilson.

Editorial contributions from John Hill, Betarocket Designed by: GDA, Northumberland.

Printed by: Statex Colour Print. Š Newcastle University, 2013.

The University of Newcastle upon Tyne trading as Newcastle University.

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