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Warwick Business School Alumni Association magazine: spring 06

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Undergraduate ProgrammeAs one of the best in the UK, our undergraduate programme is academically challenging as well as vocationally relevant, and has an excellent reputation with employers.

Specialist Masters ProgrammeWe run nine specialist masters courses, covering all areas of business and management, allowing you to expand your knowledge in a specialist area, or preparing you for further research.

Post-experience ProgrammesThe Warwick MBA and its public sector equivalent, The Warwick MPA, are both prestigious management qualifications designed to help you broaden your business knowledge, widen your skill base, and progress your career.

Doctoral Programmes & ResearchOur doctoral programme is rated as one of the best in the world. Doctoral students receive supervision and mentoring from some of the best academics in their field. You will join an exciting, vibrant, and truly international research community.

Executive EducationWe can help you and your organisation achieve real results, by identifying learning opportunities and targeting specific organisational needs. For individuals we offer short courses and accredited diplomas. For organisations, we can tailor or create courses to meet your needs.

To find out more visit www.wbs.ac.uk/go/nexus

With you every step of the wayYour study at WBS will have been a major stepping stone in your career. Whatever stage you’re at now, WBS has the expertise to help you go further.

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Warwick Business School’s mission is to command

an international reputation for high quality education and research in management and business both in the public and private sectors. With this objective in mind WBS is already, arguably, the leading full-line University-based

business school in Europe. That we have achieved such a feat in less than forty years is thanks in no small part to my predecessors like Thom Watson who sadly passed away (see obituary on P7) in 2005. With the loss of two founding fathers of WBS within a year (Brian Houlden, November 2004) it seems appropriate to reflect on our development and consider our future.

The future for WBS is exciting. Building work is under way (and running to time) on the third phase of development at Scarman Road (see P22/3). Our vision is that there will be one further phase of building after this current one to reunite all WBS faculty, staff and students on one site. This will enhance the sense of community amongst the WBS family.

Once completed, this building will help to accommodate students from our nine specialist masters programmes, MBA and MPA courses, undergraduate programme (three WBS courses and nine joint degrees with other departments) and our continually expanding executive

WBS newsthe myth of standardised business educationProfessor Howard Thomaswhen global meets localProfessor Colin CrouchEuropean integration and industrial relationsProfessor Paul MarginsonUK event reviews2006 pull-out calendaroverseas event reviewsGreece lightingMaria Frantzeskakisthe sound of enginesOtto C. Frommeltfrom Munich to MilanChristian von Strothakeeping in touchWBS in EuropeWBS building for the future20 years of the DLMBAalumni news

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message from the dean

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education portfolio. I encourage you to think of WBS as your business school and to return at any time – I know the alumni staff here are always delighted to show visitors around the buildings and the campus.

2006 also heralds a new Chair for the Alumni Board. Henri Winand (EXMBA 99–03) will be taking over the helm from Clive South who has served in the role for the past two years. I know I echo the thoughts of many as I thank Clive for his tireless support of WBS, which I am sure will continue. Henri (who coincidentally for this European issue of nexus is from Belgium) and the Alumni Board aim to represent the views of the alumni community in dialogue with myself and other WBS staff, so do check out the web site if you want to find out more.

I do hope you enjoy this issue of nexus, looking at only a handful of our many European links. In such a diverse community it is impossible to showcase everything that is happening but I anticipate that this will serve to excite your curiosity – far more information can be found online at www.wbs.ac.uk

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According to Martin Cave, Director, Centre for Management under Regulation (CMuR), getting telecommunica-tions regulation right is one of the pillars of the revised Lisbon Agenda, aimed at making Europe the most competitive place on the planet, and the telecoms group at the CMuR has been researching and advising on this issue extensively. The key problem, in markets often dominated by historic monopolists such as BT or France Telecom, is how to provide incentives for both incumbents and competitors to invest and innovate. If regulation is too lax, competitors go out of business. If too harsh, no-one invests. We have developed a framework for finding

the happy mean, which involves the regulator projecting competitors up the so-called ladder of investment – i.e. getting them to take their networks closer and closer to the consumer. This approach has been widely accepted by European regulators, and we hope it will be part of the new regulatory strategy now emerging from Brussels, in which we are also playing an advisory role for the Commission.

Our second main telecoms research area is spectrum management. This involves devising practical methods to allow innovators access to spectrum to provide new services such as Wi-Max. Creating a spectrum market from scratch is a tricky economic, legal and technological problem, but it is now scheduled to go ahead all over the EU by 2010; our research is trying to iron out some of the glitches. w users.wbs.ac.uk/group/cmur

european researchnexus: spring 06

The project leader for The European Platform for Excellence in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Research project is Brussels-based European

Academy of Business in Society (EABIS) of which WBS is a founder member. Partners in the project consortium are: European Academy of Business in Society, European Foundation for Management Development, Ashridge (Bonar Law Memorial) Trust, Copenhagen Business School, Cranfield University, INSEAD, Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School, WBS, The Copenhagen Centre, CSR Europe, Leon Kozminski Academy of Entrepreneurship and Management, Warsaw School of Economics, Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt.

This project aims to address the shortcomings of a fragmented and diffuse European CSR research agenda. It will achieve this through a structured and dynamic programme of cooperation where academic institutions, businesses and stakeholders will have a real opportunity to influence the setting of research priorities as well as the use and exploitation of research findings. Such coordination will allow European CSR-related research to be aligned, integrated and widely disseminated, creating new synergies among existing academic centres of excellence.

WBS Corporate Citizenship Unit is involved in two of the seven Work Packages with specific input to the areas of: Research Coordination for Young Research Professionals and Research Coordination Network. The project commenced in September 2004 and is funded for 3 years.

David Wilson is WBS Professor of Strategy and Chair of the European Group for Organisation Studies (EGOS) – a scholarly association for the study of organisations, organising and the organised.

Started 34 years ago, EGOS is an international network, based in Continental Europe with a secretariat in Copenhagen (soon to be Berlin) and operates under Belgian statutes. It survives financially on the subscriptions of around 1500 members, having grown from 572 members in 2000. Its current Chair – an elected position – is Professor David Wilson, who has been a member of EGOS since its inception. EGOS organises an annual conference (around 1000 people) which takes place in various Universities across Europe (Warwick played host in 1999) and the next conference will be held in Bergen, Norway in early July 2006. EGOS has had an associated journal ‘Organisation Studies’ for the last 24 years. David Wilson was its Editor (99–03). The current editor is another WBS Professor, Hari Tsoukas.

The aim of EGOS is to sustain and develop an international network of scholars (from PhD students to Professors) who see the organised world in unconventional and European ways. Underpinned by the disciplines of the Social Sciences, EGOSians recognise that organisation is more than just ‘management’ and that its study extends beyond the boundaries of conventional (often North American) business schools. w egosnet.org

Alyson Warhurst CCU

Martin Cave CMuR

David Wilson MSM

As contributors to the International Journal of Operations and Production Management, Bob Johnston and Nigel Slack from WBS Operations Management group, have each had an article selected for republication as one of the six most influential papers to be published during the journal’s 25 year history.

Emerald Group Publishing Limited have republished key articles in a

special anniversary edition, and invited Bob and Nigel to submit an update to accompany their original articles, which asks Where are we now?

Bob’s article, Service operations management: return to roots, first appeared in a 1999 edition of the journal. Nigel’s article, The flexibility of manufacturing systems, was republished together with Bob’s in Volume 25, issue 12 (2005).

Nigel Slack OMBob Johnston OM

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Colin Crouch, Chair of the Institute of Governance and Public Management: Capitalist Diversity and Change: Recombinant Governance and Institutional Entrepreneurs. Published by

Oxford University Press (OUP). Assesses the neo-institutionalist literature on comparative capitalism and proposes a major re-orientation of the field.w www.oup.co.uk/isbn/0-19-928665-5

Robert Johnston, Professor of Operations Management and Graham Clark: Service Operations Management – improving service delivery, 2nd edition. Published by FT

Prentice Hall. Provides tools, frameworks and techniques for operational analysis and improvement.w www.pearsoned.co.uk/Bookshop/detail.asp?item=100000000038098

Paul Edwards, Professor of Industrial Relations, and Judy Wajcman: The Politics of Working Life. Published by OUP. Explains the nature of working life in modern organisations; offers a

detailed and thorough analysis and explains all its concepts.w www.oup.co.uk/isbn/0-19-927190-9

Alumna Dr Paula Jarzabkowski, Reader in Strategic Management, Aston Business School (PhD 97–00), has authored a research monograph, the first in the field of strategy as

practice: Strategy as Practice: An Activity-Based Approach with Sage Publications. w www.sagepub.co.uk/book.aspx?pid=106986

Richard Elliott, Professor of Marketing & Consumer Research, co-authored with Larry Percy: Strategic Advertising Management 2nd edition. Published by

OUP. Includes expanded chapters on Communication Strategy and Processing the Message and business-to-business examples.w www.oup.co.uk/isbn/0-19-927489-4

Professor Colin Carnall, Associate Dean, Executive Programmes: Change Management, a Personnel Today Guide, published by Reed Business Information. Includes practical advice

on how to implement strategic change successfully and best practice case studies.

Nigel Piercy, WBS Professor of Marketing, with Mac Hulbert and Noel Capon of Columbia Business School: Total integrated marketing. Published by Kogan Page.

Provides a framework for designing and managing total marketing strategy. w www.kogan-page.co.uk/bookdetails.aspx?ISBN=074944455X

Alumnus Walter Baets (PhD 1989–94), Professor Complexity and Knowledge Coordinator of EcKM at the Euromed Centre for Knowledge Management, Marseilles: Knowledge

management and management learning : extending the horizons of knowledge-based management, published by Springer. w www.springeronline.com

european research

Exploring the implications of public involvement internationally is at the centre of two current European projects led by Jonathan Tritter, Research Director of the University’s

Health Service Partnership in the Institute of Governance and Public Management (IGPM). Both projects are funded by the Academy of Finland (equivalent to the Economic and Social Research Council or the Medical Research Council) and involve a range of different collaborators.

hot off the press

The first is a joint collaboration with the Finnish National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health (STAKES). Globalisation and citizens in health care: Exploring the role of users, choice and markets in European health systems looks at the way marketisation and citizen engagement have developed in transnational organisations (eg WTO, World Bank), in EU legislation and have emerged in Finland, Sweden and England. w www.gaspp.org/research/globhealthcare/index.html

The second explores how citizens are involved in environmental regulation, focused on Finland but drawing on case studies in the UK and the USA. Effective

Environmental Management: Law, public participation and environmental decision-making is a collaboration between the Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE), Abo Akademi University and Turku University. w www.ymparisto.fi/default.asp?node=17300&lan=en

For more information email e j.tritter@wbs.ac.ukJonathan Tritter IGPM

Members of the WBS Operational Research & Information Systems Group (ORIS) will be presenting their research and organising streams at the EURO conference in Iceland in July 2006.

Alumnus Tas Gohir (EXMBA 97–02), Business Development Manager, Evolution Life Science Ltd: MBA student project reviewing the barriers to

commercialisation from the Dept ofBiological Sciences at Warwick, in collaboration with Grier Palmer, pub-lished in Industry and Higher Education journal as it has wider applicability to other departments and institutions.

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external recognition and honours at WBS

WBS newsnexus: spring 06

Yet again WBS performed excellently in the Financial Times Executive MBA rankings. In the past three years; WBS has risen from 35th to 17th in the world, 6th in Europe – up one place this year, and 4th in the UK.

The WhichMBA? Guide, published by the Economist Intelligence Unit, saw another good performance by The Warwick MBA. The results were published in September, and showed a rise of two world places to 28th, while holding our place as 10th in Europe, and 4th in the UK.

In the annual Times Good University Guide ranking of undergraduate business degrees, WBS Undergraduate

programme is rated second among all UK universities, making WBS the best overall undergraduate business education provider in the UK – the only institution in the top two for both Accountancy & Finance and Business Studies.

Finally, the German magazine Junge Karriere, produced their second European business school ranking, where WBS was placed 7th in Europe and 3rd in the UK.

The contribution by current students and alumni to our ranking perform-ances through participation in media surveys is hugely appreciated by staff at WBS and the wider University.

Members of WBS have recently received external recognition and honours:

Dame Yve Buckland, Programme Director of the Health Service Partnership at the WBS Institute of Governance & Public Management, has been appointed Chair of the NHS Institute of Innovation and Improvement.

Simon Collinson, Senior Lecturer in International Business at WBS, is one of nine new AIM (Advanced Institute of Management) Research Fellows under the prestigious Ghoshal Fellowship Scheme.

George Cox, lately Director-General of the Institute of Directors and now Chairman of the Design Council, received a knighthood for services to business in the Queen’s Birthday Honours. He is a long-standing member of the WBS Advisory Board, and a lay member of the University of Warwick Council.

Colin Crouch, Chair of the influential Institute of Governance & Public Management at WBS, became a Fellow of the British Academy, the national academy for the humanities and the social sciences.

Bob Johnston, Professor of Operations Management, has been elected Vice-President of the Institute of Customer Service, as a result of his long-standing commitment to research in the service field and his desire to drive improvements in business and customer service.

Howard Thomas, Dean of WBS, was made an Inaugural Fellow of The Strategic Management Society at their 25th anniversary meeting in Orlando, Florida, in October 2005.

rising in the rankings

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A pleasing trend is the increase, by 50 percent, in international coverage, while coverage in the Financial Times has almost doubled.

Geographical spread of media coverageInternational coverage2005 24% 2004 12%National coverage2005 59%2004 63%Local/regional coverage2005 17%2004 25%

Sectors of media coverage in 2005: Press 48% Magazines 36% Online 10% Broadcast 6%

WBS news nexus: spring 06

WBS is sad to report the death of Thom Watson, for many years Senior Lecturer in Organisational Psychology, and Chairman of the School from 1981 to 1983. He was also Chair of the Faculty of Social Studies for a number of years in the 1980s.

Thom joined the School in 1970 after 15 years’ industrial experience following his national service, and four years as a senior staff member at Ashorne Hill College. He was able to bring to his teaching a deep familiarity with the practice of management, and his teaching always sought to combine the analytical with the practical and to prepare his students for the world of work after their studies.

Many generations of undergraduate and postgraduate students will remember Thom with great affection and gratitude. On hearing of his death alumna Karen Fill, one of his personal tutees nearly 30 years ago, wrote to the School recalling his great kindness and generosity.

After his retirement in 1993 he remained closely linked to WBS, attending alumni and other reunion events regularly, sharing memories with alumni and colleagues.

A full obituary appears on the WBS web site w www.wbs.ac.uk/news/features/2005/10/07/Obituary/Thom/Watson

Thom Watson 1926–2005

The University has been exploring the possibility of setting up a campus in Singapore but the proposition was rejected by Senate at a recent meeting. The proposal was for a research intensive campus developing to 10,000 students over time. WBS engaged in the University-wide feasibility study and some advantages were seen although the prevailing view was not to accept the proposal.

In addition to engaging in the University feasibility study the School carried out its own study of a WBS in Singapore and separately a scoping exercise on the WBS international strategy. The former indicated that a WBS in Singapore would be a viable proposition if the University proposal were financially robust. The scoping exercise involved a series of workshops over the summer which identified a rich array of possible international initiatives. These included developments of the MBA portfolio, deploying Executive Education internationally, a global undergraduate degree, and stronger institutional collaboration on research and teaching with overseas partners.

The various proposals will be developed and evaluated during the coming year with initial discussions with partners at the forthcoming PIM (Programme for International Management) conference in Prague.

In 2005 WBS appeared in the press, broadcast or online media around ten times each week. These articles, reports, expert comments, research findings, and general news items covered an astonishing variety of 100 different topics. As well as the expected and regular MBA features and rankings they ranged across subjects as diverse as the UK’s energy policy, finance arrangements for small businesses, hotels of the future, telecommunications on remote islands, and issues in football club management.

Coverage of or by our teaching and research faculty accounted for 80 per cent of the total. Almost a quarter of this can be credited to the Centre for Small & Medium Sized Enterprises and the Enterprise Teaching Group, who deserve a special mention, particularly as they are two of the smallest groups in terms of numbers of faculty. The remaining fifth of the School’s coverage came from our alumni, students and other WBS staff.

We are particularly grateful to our alumni and students who make themselves available for interviews and case studies, whether in our own publications and web sites, or for external media. Their contribution to raising the profile of WBS is valuable and much appreciated. For more information on the latest WBS

news stories visit:w www.wbs.ac.uk/newspress_releases

WBS in Singapore? WBS in the media

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To do so, we must recognise that our differences are not as much ideological as they are cultural. The evolution and development of business andeducational institutions in the United States and Europe have their origins in the unique cultural, economic, and political environment of these diverse regions.

When we look at the USA, we often think of capitalism. In general terms, the USA has followed a market-oriented approach, considering private enterprise as the main driver of positive change. This market-based perspective has encouraged the development of flexible administrative mechanisms that lead to a high degree of openness to, and acceptance of, continuous change. At the macroeconomic level, the USA is a relatively homogeneous and large market.

In contrast, European countries have adopted a society-oriented approach, in which governments and the public sector have a more prominent role in shaping social and economic development. As a consequence, their administrative mechanisms are more bureaucratic and tradition-based, marked by a certain degree of conservatism and resistance to change. To protect the social dimension of the markets, European societies have adopted processes of change that tend to be more driven by consensus and take a longer time to build momentum.

It’s been six years since 29 European Ministers of Education signed the 1999

Bologna Declaration, which aims to turn the heterogeneous systems of higher education in European countries into a ‘European Higher Education Area,’ where higher education degrees are comparable, mobile, and widely recognised.

The educational trends that the Declaration’s signatories hope to address in Europe are coming to bear on business

Furthermore, the European market is much more fragmented, since it is characterised by a wide diversity of languages, cultures, and legal systems.

Business schools in Europe and the USA often reflect their cultural contexts. In response to their market-driven culture, US business schools quickly started developing standardised educational products of mass

appeal, such as the MBA. Since their origins in the late nineteenth

century, US business schools have been less dependent on

public funding and have learned to rely upon

significant private support. Such

support, which usually takes

the form of financial

the myth of standardised business educationProfessor Howard Thomas, Dean of Warwick Business School, discusses the changing nature of European higher education and the quest to break down barriers and broaden horizons for students within Europe.

nexus: spring 06 focus on europe education

Business schools worldwide are beginning to realise that educational models are no longer static, isolated structures

schools worldwide. Students are no longer staying in their home countries to live and work, but travelling the world. In past years, these students faced obstacles to their employment and education but in an era of increasing globalisation, such a narrow-minded view of international credentials will need to change.

The effect of the Bologna Declaration has important implications for international business education. But while we search for ways to make the world’s educational systems compatible, we should not strive to make them identical. Standardising such a complex assembly of educational models would be impossible. More important, it would be regrettable to lose the diversity they offer. On the other hand, establishing a system of equivalencies among school systems would benefit all institutions of higher education.

Education in contextBusiness schools worldwide are beginning to realise that educational models are no longer static, isolated structures. They are interacting at an accelerated level, and it will be important, if not crucial, that we be able to reconcile those models so that students can more easily cross borders to study and work.

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Consideration, not standardisationWhen we look at issues of accreditation and quality assurance, the term ‘standardisation’ really may simply mean ‘understanding.’ To accredit business education in an environment such as Europe, where models differ so widely, we must implement more flexible guidelines and standards and take into consideration what is valuable within each model. Even more important, we must have the sensitivity to understand the different business cultures these countries represent.

Often, educators worldwide have tried to reinvent international education as if it should follow a US model. Globalisation is not Americanisation. It has become a necessity for management education to hold more international conferences and provide avenues for people to exchange ideas. That is the short to medium-term way of solving the problem.

As we look to long-term goals and solutions, it is essential for business school deans and faculty to recognise and become sensitive to the variety of cultural and educational models that exist beyond their home countries. In their search for partnerships and alliances, they will need to balance complementary points their institutions share with potential allies, while taking into consideration the value of those areas in which they differ. Through a clear understanding of such educational diversity, all models of business education should become both more internationally and culturally sensitive and much more enriched overall.

Howard Thomas is Professor of Strategic Management and Dean of WBS. His present appointments include: Inaugural Fellow of the US Strategic Management Society, past Chair of the Board of the Graduate Management Admissions Council, member of Beta Gamma Sigma, and Fellow of both the Academy of Management in the USA and the UK and of the Sunningdale Institute. He is currently Vice-President of the efmd (European Foundation for Management Development) and a board member of GFME, ABS, BAM and State Farm Bank.

Full details of Howard’s career, research interests and a comprehensive list of the journal articles and books which he has authored and co-authored can be found on the WBS web site w www.wbs.ac.uk/faculty/members/howard/thomas

donations by individuals and corporations has allowed many schools to build large endowments to fund their enterprises.

European business schools have become more diverse, less standardised, and less institutionalised. However, they are also more dependent on state policies and funding. Thus, it has taken them a much longer period of time to become legitimate entities in the educational landscapes of their countries.

nexus: spring 06 focus on europe

time to pursuing that degree over the time it takes to earn. A two-year degree, however, would be unacceptable to most Europeans and the companies they work for – they are not willing to take two full years from their lives or fund their education and lifestyles while they earn the degree. The two degrees are products of different cultures.

The flexible MBA programme has remained mostly a product of countries outside the USA. At Warwick Business School, we

education

Education as a function of societyIn encouraging and communicating a sensitive recognition of different models of education we also can see how education should differ from country to country. Educational systems often represent very high quality and a tremendous value within their regional contexts, even if they don’t look like our own.

In the USA, for example, the term ‘general education’ for a business undergraduate degree typically means that up to 50 percent of the degree is in non-business, liberal arts subjects. In many European countries general business education at the undergraduate level involves virtually no general education – the assumption is that students have had those courses in their high school careers.

In Great Britain, a one-year, full-time MBA degree is common, while in the USA, the two-year MBA degree is the norm. When looked at simplistically the degrees may seem as if they are not equivalent. However, in the USA, each year in a typical MBA follows a semester system – students study for two four-month semesters, break for the summer, and return for two more semesters of study. In Britain, students study in an intensive, 12-month programme. Yes, these two models are different but is one necessarily better than the other?

In America, students are often willing to save their money to fund the MBA

education and then dedicate their

have three different MBA schedules based around a common curriculum: full-time for 12 months; a three-year programme, delivered as a series of modules that are one week in duration; or via distance learning. We have over 2,000 MBA students but only around 75 full-time MBA students annually.

Increasing understandingTo develop a ‘European Higher Education area’, the Bologna Declaration recommends a degree system that ironically follows a US model, with an undergraduate cycle lasting a minimum of three years and a graduate cycle of study leading to a masters or doctoral degree. There are also very specific statements, for example, about a requirement of four years experience before an MBA degree, as well as very clear statements about the nature and form of specialist masters degrees.

The Bologna Declaration’s agenda for the future harmonisation of learning structures in higher education across Europe strives to take the differences among schools into consideration, while still maintaining a set of standards that all can follow within their different cultural circumstances and frameworks. Resolving such a paradox has been the daunting task for the European Union and the European Foundation for Management Development.

Students are no longer staying in their home countries to live and work, but travelling the world. In past years, these students faced obstacles to their employment and education but in an era of increasing globalisation, such a narrow-minded view of international credentials will need to change

the author in minute

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Professor Colin Crouch, Chair, Institute of Governance and Public Management. Colin was previously Professor of Comparative Social Institutions & Political Sciences at the European Institute,

Florence. He also held positions at LSE and Oxford. He is Chairman of The Political Quarterly, past President of the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics (SASE) and External Scientific member of the Max Planck Institute for Social Research at Cologne.

Research Interests: structure of European societies, with special reference to labour market, gender and family issues; economic sociology; neo-institutional analysis.

when global meets local

nexus: spring 06 focus on europe

It has become a cliché among students of economic development that

globalisation often means localisation. The argument runs like this: firms in the world’s rich countries will not compete on price with producers in China and other newly industrialising countries, but on the basis of the quality and distinctiveness of their products. A major source of these attributes lies in the advantages that accrue when many firms specialising in the various levels of a production chain are clustered together in certain geographical locations. Particular localities therefore acquire potentially global strength.

In a number of recent projects with colleagues across Europe I have been exploring the ways in which this paradox works – and the limits that might exist to it. Firstly, we developed the idea of Local Collective Competition Goods (LCCGs). These are the things that impart strength to specialised clusters, principally of small and medium-sized enterprises. They include the specialised facilities for a particular industry that often develops around clusters, whether through supplier firms seeing the market niche, or through local government or local business associations seeing how they can make a useful contribution. But perhaps the most important LCCG of all is the knowledge that spreads quickly, sometimes quite unnoticed, among firms whose managers and experts frequently meet each other, casually and socially as well as purposefully. Knowledge circulates about anything from new design ideas to good employees looking for a change of job.

We developed the idea of LCCGs in a comparative study of local economies in France, Germany, Italy and the UK (Local Production Systems in Europe – Colin Crouch, Patrick Le Galès, Carlo Trigilia and Helmut Voelzkow, Oxford University Press 2001). These national surveys raised some questions. How were industries – like machinery production – that had been seen as classic cases for clusters of European SMEs bearing up to the globalisation challenge? Was it possible for new local economies based on small firms to flourish

the author in minute

Colin Crouch, Professor – Governance & Public Management, joins with colleagues across Europe to explore ways in which particular localities acquire potentially global strength.

where old large-scale industries, like steel, were closing down? Were clusters a feature of activities in the new economy?

We tackled these questions in a second study (Changing Governance of Local Economies, OUP 2004). SMEs in the machinery industry (in and around Bologna, Coventry, Saint-Etienne and Stuttgart) had certainly taken a beating, but they were surviving better where clusters were rich in LCCGs. And we found vibrant local economies based on small, sometimes very small firms in biopharmaceuticals around Cambridge, television film-making in Cologne, information technology in Pisa, and high-tech industries around Grenoble. There were however only a few signs of successful SME-based specialisms in the former steel cities of Saint-Etienne, Sheffield or Piombino. There was growth of a logistics-based economy replacing steel around Duisburg, but based on large firms.

A further finding of much of this work was that SMEs have difficulty marketing in the global economy, even when local associations and other resources try to develop their competence. The main exceptions seemed to be when one or more large firms moved into an area and made

the connections from local to global, the small firms becoming their suppliers. This emerges most strikingly in a further study, still on-going and funded by the European Commission’s Framework Six research programme. This looked at some districts of successful small garment-making firms in otherwise economically depressed areas of southern Italy and central Poland. Superficially similar, the cases were really very different. The Italian firms had become suppliers to leading Italian clothing brands, who provided designs, quality control, world markets, and established brand names. The little Polish firms had no access to anything outside themselves. They are surviving, partly in the shadow economy, through very cheap sales to Russian and Ukrainian buyers, in parts of the world that have not yet been touched by low-cost Asian production.

Life is tough for small firms. There is no romantic golden path to success through local clusters and networks. Usually where these exist, they result from the initiative and ingenuity of a few people, in the firms themselves, in local government, in the business associations, on the right links outside the local community, and on a big helping of good fortune.

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european integration and industrial relationsResearch on developments in employment practice and employment relations at European level, and across countries within Europe, is a major theme of the Industrial Relations Research Unit (IRRU) research programme. This is demonstrated in the following précis of a recent book by Paul Marginson, IRRU’s Director, and Keith Sisson, Emeritus Professor of Industrial Relations.

nexus: spring 06 focus on europe

Although there has been much debate about the impact of European

integration on industrial relations, there has been a less than objective appreciation of the governance arrangements actually emerging. As the then Social Affairs Commissioner Anna Diamantopoulou contended, it is something of a ‘caricature’ to see things in terms of the ‘two extremes of social union versus a completely deregulated free-for-all’ (Financial Times, 18 February 2000). Contrary to the aspirations of some, a vertically integrated European

Paul Marginson, Professor in Industrial Relations and Director of the Industrial Relations Research Unit. Senior Lecturer in Industrial Relations at WBS from 1990–95; then Professor of HRM and Employment

Relations at University of Leeds, 1996–98. Current links with European Commission, European Foundation for Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, DTI, CBI, Engineering Employer Federation and TUC. E paul.marginson@wbs.ac.ukW www.wbs.ac.uk/faculty/research/irru.cfm

the author in minute

The drivers of these developments are not only the so-called traditional methods of legal enactment and collective bargaining, but increasingly also newer regulatory processes. The result is a shift in regulatory output from ‘hard’ to ‘soft’ forms. There is also a great deal of informal networking, learning and cross-fertilisation across borders.

Like the EU polity’s multi-level governance system, the trajectory of this multi-level industrial relations framework is uncertain. Political science argues that the EU cannot be placed on a continuum between ‘loose inter-governmentalism’ and the ‘superstate’. Similarly it would be wrong to situate the industrial relations framework between ‘Europeanisation’ and ‘Americanisation’. Indeed there are competing tendencies towards ‘Europeanisation’, ‘Americanisation’ and ‘Re-nationalisation’ of industrial relations. Complexity, uncertainty and instability look set to be the defining characteristics for the foreseeable future. Amongst the more imponderable ingredients is the impact of the EU’s 2004 enlargement; whether it will extend or unravel the multi-level industrial relations framework that has emerged.

European Integration and Industrial Relations: multi-level governance in the making is published by Palgrave Macmillan, ISBN 0-333-96866-2. Paperback due 2006. e www.palgrave.com

multi-level character of industrial relations governance. Moreover, the economic and market forces unleashed by European integration are also impinging on industrial relations within member states more directly. At national level, meeting and continuing to comply with the requirements of Euro-zone membership has prompted the conclusion of so-called national level social pacts amongst the majority of the ‘old’ member states concerned. Intensification of international competitive pressures within Europe’s

system of industrial relations has not emerged. Nor does it appear likely. Yet, although Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) has increasingly set industrial relations systems in competition with each other – at national, sector and company levels, the dominant pattern of multi-employer bargaining amongst the EU-15 remains largely intact. Indeed there has been little apparent change in the formal institutions of industrial relations within these 15 ‘old’ member states.

Even so, there have been significant ‘Europeanising’ developments. At the cross-sector level, a series of directives together with framework agreements between the EU-level social partners have given regulatory effect to much of the EU’s 1989 Social Charter. More recently two autonomous framework agreements have emerged from the cross-sector social dialogue. Autonomous framework agreements are starting to be concluded under the EU sector-level social dialogue too. And in several sectors both European-level and national trade unions have launched cross-border bargaining co-ordination initiatives.

This emerging EU-level dimension to industrial relations provides an increas-ingly important frame for developments in national systems, thereby adding to the

single market, together with the need to handle widespread restructuring and rationalisation, has elevated questions of cost reduction, adaptability, flexibility and employment security up the bargaining agenda. Long-running pressures for decentralisation of bargaining towards the company level have thereby been reinforced.

The EU’s multi-level industrial relations framework reflects a history of informal and gradual development as well as deliberate institution building. It has developed, and continues to develop, relatively autonomously. It cannot simply be defined in hierarchical terms, with a supranational level or levels added on top of national systems and decisions cascading down. The supranational nature of the EU is encouraging the development of a cross-border dimension at the cross-sector, sector and above all company levels. Hence developments have been ‘bottom-up’ as well as ‘top-down’; and cross-national (horizontal) influences mix with national (vertical) ones. In bringing about a measure of convergence within companies and sectors between national systems, the multi-level framework is simultaneously promoting greater diversity between companies and sectors within national systems.

The EU’s multi-level industrial relations framework reflects a history of informal and gradual development as well as deliberate institution building

12

for future teleconferences please contact Caroline Hughes.

The Brand Management Group is piloting the use of a community web log, a ‘blog’ which because of its electronic platform has an international membership. The aim of the pilot is to see if we can establish the blog as a place for sharing ideas on issues and trends affecting the industry. The blog will become a place where participants can discover what their WBS peers are thinking and doing about BM.

Special thanks go to Olga and John, and to alumnus Samin Sarkar (MBA 98–9) for coordinating the event.

The Telecoms Group is co-ordinated by Charles Stubbs (MBA 91–2) and Phil White (MBA 01–2), with academic input from Professor John McGee. This group has international membership and meets via teleconferences. Thank you to Phil for providing bridge facilities to date. If you would be able to offer bridge facilities

UK event reviews

12

went with a swing!The MBA Summer Ball at the Forest of Arden Hotel and Country Club in July was a resounding success and around 150 graduates, guests and WBS staff jazzed it up until the early hours.

A great performance by The Dr Teeth Big Band had everyone dancing from the start, and with the additional attractions of a

disco, cocktails, saxophone shaped vodka luge and chocolate fountain, everyone had an evening to remember! According to graduate Willie Heung, ‘The Ball was indeed memorable and surely the best party ever.’

Thank you to the members of the Committee and everyone else who helped with the success of this special celebration.

Gill Thewlis (MBA 89–90) reports: On 12 November, 20 members of the 1989–90 FMBA class met for the first time in several years, when a total of 30 people gathered for dinner at the Saxon Mill near Warwick. A great night seemed to be had by all – judging by the photographs (courtesy of Mat Mycock)!

Huge thanks to Peter and Camilla Leith who did all the leg work in organising things with the Saxon Mill. The event was also supported by the WBS Alumni Association. Thanks to everyone who attended and made it such a good night. We hope that this is the first of many get-togethers, so feedback has been encouraged, as have suggestions for future events.

SIGsThe Public & Voluntary Sector network has very strong alumni champions and following several events in conjunction with IGPM, the steering committee of alumni and current students now plan a series of events for the forthcoming year. The group held its first networking meeting in London in November. The subject was Choice and Voice in Public Services and Ann Abraham, Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, launched the discussion. Thank you to current MPA student Chris Halek for organising this event.

The Consultancy Group: following a successful launch event involving ‘speed networking’ and ‘thought leadership’ sessions, we are seeking alumni champions for this group, and are planning to replicate the Birmingham event in London in the New Year. As part of their Business Liaison Programme, IBM hosted a Consultancy event in October when alumni and students took the opportunity to learn about The Other IBM: A different kind of business innovation, presented by Olga Bassoli and John Message from IBM.

2005 was an exceptionally busy year. In addition to a growing calendar of events, the Special Interest Groups (SIGs) came on board and new regional groups have been set up. To enable you to diary dates well in advance, we have put together a calendar for 2006 (P14/15).

getting together

the Consultancy Group meeting

For further information on SIG activities, please check the web site w www.wbs.ac.uk/alumni or contact Caroline Hughes: e caroline.hughes@wbs.ac.uk

13

UK event reviews

LondonThe First Friday October event at Mezzo in Soho, London, went really well with about 50 alumni enjoying the excellent atmosphere. Year group co-ordinators have proved effective in increasing attendance at First Friday events held every two months.

The December pre-Christmas drinks event at Mash Bar was also well attended and started the festivities off in the right spirit! Our thanks go to organiser Kevin Engelbretson for another busy year.

e kevin.engelbretson@thecloud.net

13

In October and November four alumni returned to campus to take part in a series of MBA forums held at the MBA Teaching Centre, Radcliffe.

Kevin Desmond (BSc Mathematics 78–81) Markets Group Director, PwC London Capital. Topic Building the European Market

Neil Wood, currently completing an MBA by executive study, Finance Director London 2012. Topic: Winning the London Olympic and Paralympic Games Bid

Mark Pullen (BSc Maths & Operational Research, Stats, Economics 92–5) Former Group Finance Director, Geest. Topic: Retail power: the real big brands

Alison Woodhams (MSc Business Management Systems 87–91), Chief Operating Officer, BBC World Service. Topic: BBC World Service - Public Service in a Commercial World.

The forums recommence in January 2006, and full details can be found online at w www.wbs.ac.uk/alumni/forthcoming.cfm

WBS forums

OxfordThe Oxford group has grown in popularity, drawing 20–25 alumni to each event. September’s event started with drinks as usual in the cosy Lamb and Flag on St. Giles, followed by dinner at a local restaurant. The event on 25 November also generated good attendance and feedback. Our thanks to group coordinator, Alex Clark (MBA 00–1), who is the perfect host on these occasions. If you fancy coming along to the next event, you will be sure of a warm welcome.

e alexanderdnclark@hotmail.com

MidlandsAround 40 people attended the motivational talk, Thank God it’s Monday! given by Robert Cuesta-Sevillano (MBA 02–3), Principal, Turning Point Associates, at WBS Scarman Road on 22 November. This Midlands group event proved very popular and provoked much discussion with a lengthy and lively question and answer session.

One alumna attending for the first time confirmed she enjoyed the talk so much she will always try to attend future events.

Many thanks to Robert for negotiating the M6 traffic to share his motivational secrets with us.

South WestThanks to Richard Hill, (MSc Marketing Management 77–8) for organising the social event on 6 September, when ten or so alumni ventured out to one of Bath’s best kept secrets – the Moon and Sixpence for drinks and dinner. Conversation flowed and the food was excellent.

Drinks and dinner at Zerodegrees in Bristol on 6 December proved another winning formula – thanks to John English (MBA 02–3).

This group meets socially four times a year in either Bath or Bristol. If good food and good company is your scene then contact Caroline Hughes if you would like to come to a future event.

e caroline.hughes@wbs.ac.uk

North WestA good time was had by all at an informal meeting at the Pitcher & Piano in Manchester in September. Some new faces joined the regulars and the relaxed atmosphere made for easy conversation and networking. The same venue played host to a successful drinks and dinner evening in December. Organiser Rob McCulloch extends an invitation to alumni in the North West to join them at their next meeting on 8 March.

e rmcculloch@terasys.co.uk

ScotlandAngus Turner (MBA 99–00) is working hard to bring together graduates from the University of Warwick, now based in Scotland. After a very successful event at Est Est Est in Edinburgh in early September, the next social gathering was held at All Bar One, George Street in December. This was a very informal event and gave those attending the opportunity to catch up with old friends and make new contacts. Our thanks to Angus.

e angusturner99@hotmail.com

14

january

february

march

april

Winter Congregation 25Winter congregation dinner 25MSOR projects evening 26WBS forums MondaysMidlands regional gathering tbc

may

Public and Voluntary Sector Network, Birmingham 02First Friday – London 03WBSS Forum 04Alumni Board 07MBA projects evening 15Oxford regional gathering 17Academic Update 25WBS forums Mondays

South West regional gathering 07North West regional gathering 08Stockholm – Professor John McGee 15WBS Forums MondaysBrussels – Alumni dinner with Stuart Chambers 13/31 tbcSingapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia – alumni dinners tbcTelecoms SIG event at WBS tbcWomen’s Dinner tbcIBM lecture at WBS 23

First Friday – London 07Midlands group seminar event tbcCity Lecture tbc

Annual Dinner 04Oxford regional gathering 19Telecoms teleconference tbc

Showcasing four leading WBS academics, this event is an ideal opportunity to hear some of the latest research emanating from WBS. This year we will be featuring Professor Bob Johnston, speaking on Service excellence & designing the customer experience; Stuart Chambers, speaking on Continuous improvement in the service sector; Zoe Radnor speaking on Learning to Lean and Lyndon Simkin speaking on Great companies innovate. In building client relationships, too!. Full details of this £49 event and how to book are available online.

SAVE THE DATE and join with faculty and current students to celebrate the successes of WBS over the past year and share in our vision for the future. The Inner Temple will play host to WBS this year for an evening of sparkling conversation and fine dining. Each year around 150 alumni and their guests enjoy this unique opportunity to network with other WBS alumni in a prestigious and beautiful environment. Booking details will be circulated in February via email and online.

nexus: spring 06 WBS events calendar 2006

academic update

annual dinner

15

summer ball

Hailed as the perfect end to a proud day the MBA summer ball is open not only to those graduating this year but to all alumni and their guests. If you feel the need to dig out your DJ or put on a party frock and dance the night away, then this is the evening for you. Details will be announced later in the year in the email newsletter, so make sure you update your details online if you would like to be notified. If you would like help in contacting your classmates so that you can arrange a table at the event, please do contact Sue Cresswell. e sue.cresswell@wbs.ac.uk

First Friday – London 06Alumni Board tbc

june

july

september

august

october

december

november

Alumni Board 01First Friday – London 02South West regional gathering 06North West regional gathering 07Public Sector Academic Update 17MPA Ball 17WBS at the races tbc

Undergraduate graduation 11Post-Graduate Graduation 14Graduation Ball 14

South West regional gathering 05North West regional gathering 06DLMBA reunion 30Oxford regional gathering tbcRecent graduates event – Midlands tbc

Oxford regional gathering 24

First Friday – London 01South-West regional gathering 05North-West regional gathering 06Midlands regional gathering tbc

nexus: spring 06 WBS events calendar 2006

W www.wbs.ac.uk/alumni/forthcoming.cfm

16

Achieving the Warwick MBA by distance learning is a great event – but unfortunately it is not always possible for students who live far from Warwick to attend Graduation at the University. So when Sue Beech, DLMBA Programme Director, was in Hong Kong recently a celebration event was arranged for recent graduates and their families. The celebration lunch was held at the New World Renaissance Hotel, Kowloon, on Sunday 13 November

overseas event reviews

16

Thank you to all of our alumni who organise and host events, and also

assist with MBA recruitment fairs in countries visited by WBS. We really do appreciate your support. We are also indebted to Warwick and WBS faculty and staff who host alumni events when visiting overseas.

Stuart Chambers (MBA 84–6) Principal Teaching Fellow, Operations Management group at WBS, will host a dinner in Brussels on either 13 March or 31 March. Please update your email address online to ensure you receive an invitation.

Libresens Bar in Paris has now played host to two gatherings of WBS alumni. The most recent event on 1 December was attended by an enthusiastic group of alumni, who were joined by Nathalie Walker, Head of Alumni Relations. WBS was joined on this occasion by alumni from the Australian Graduate School of Management, one of our PIM partner schools, and McGill University. WBS is delighted to expand the network of its alumni by working with other prestigious schools in this way. Thank you to Dimos Silvestriadis (MBA 98–9) for organising these events.

Fifteen members of the WBS community met for a sumptuous dining experience on 17 October at Cantinetta Antinori in Zurich. Stuart Sutherland, e-learning

Consultant, the Warwick MBA, and Nathalie Walker, Head of Alumni Relations, who were visiting the city for an MBA recruitment event, were joined by current DLMBA students and a cross-section of the alumni community. Business cards were exchanged and plans are afoot for an event in Geneva in the spring.

Ben MacDermott (BSc Computer & Business Studies 98–01) reported: ‘It was great to meet fellow WBS graduates in Zurich. As an undergraduate alumnus talking to people who had done the Warwick MBA provided amazing input to help me decide what it is I want to do as far as further education is concerned.’

On 3 November WBS alumnus Bernardo Hees (MBA 97–8), President of América Latina Logística (ALL), the largest railway based logistic operator in Latin America, spoke on Challenges and Opportunities in the Brazilian Logistics market at the Auditório do Centro Brasileiro Britânico in São Paulo. Members of the Association of British Alumni, the British Council, LBS and WBS alumni attended and adjourned to Drake’s Pub for drinks and networking afterwards. Thank you to Ody Ferreira (MBA 97–8) for organising this event.

Belgium (advance notice)

France

Brazil

Switzerland

Hong Kong

Sweden

An enthusiastic group of alumni turned out for the Greek alumni social event in Athens on 18 November. Braving the chilly temperatures about 30 alumni met at the Hard Rock Cafe, Fillelinon Street, for a fun evening of drinks and networking.

Caroline Hughes, WBS Alumni Relations Executive, was on hand to update alumni about developments at WBS.

A big thank you to Nikos Zagorissios (MBA 93–4) and the rest of the Greek alumni committee for organising the evening.

Greece

WBS alumni gathered in Stockholm in November prior to the graduation ball held annually by WBS’ partner institution in Sweden, FEI. This is the second Stockholm event of recent months and is a precursor to an event planned for March 2006 when John McGee, Professor of Strategic Management, and Associate Dean, The Warwick MBA, will represent WBS at the Swedish Business Schools Alumni Association, talking about his research relating to telecoms. Learn more about the Stockholm group and organiser Mischa Du Pont on P20.

and members of the graduates’ extended families joined the party after lunch for photographs.

17

The way a manager performs the managerial duties depends on various

factors, like traditions, financial and legal environment, geographical area, and business ethics, as well as the specific characteristics of people involved in the management procedure.

I was born in Greece where I spent my childhood. Since my youth, I have travelled all over the world and had the

Greece lighting

become lighting specialists. Nowadays, we exclusively represent in Greece 20 of the largest European lighting companies and pole manufacturers like Thorn, Concord and Petitjean. For the last 25 years we have covered all areas of lighting, in the public and private sector, designing the lighting and supplying the materials. My previous proficiency in communication and inte-grated knowledge proved advantageous when combined with the experience and knowledge of Alexander Karakassis in the lighting field.

Despite achieving incredible success in business, I believe I am now experiencing the best part of my life. I have a wonderful daughter who is in her third year of architecture studies at the University of Greenwich in the UK. She is a mature and independent young woman, who knows how to organise herself to succeed. Initially I was anxious that motherhood would take part of the energy I needed for business. In fact it gave me more energy and enthusiasm, following a new life with the knowledge and experience I had already acquired.

My deep love for music (I’ve studied piano for nine years), for Fine Arts, particularly for painting, or for travelling just for pleasure, discovering other cultures are some of my hidden precious treasures. Although I still dedicate many hours to business, I’ve started doing things exclusively for me, aiming to achieve a high level of internal freedom. What my experiences have taught me is that the management of one’s own life is the most important exercise one has to execute. I am very happy to see Warwick grow so much and become one of the leading Universities in Europe. Also, wishing to see WBS further expand its international profile, I have been a member of the School’s Advisory Board since 2003 and continue to give my support.

For more information on General Electromechanical Works Ltd:

w www.gew.gr

Maria Frantzeskakis (MSc Management & Business Studies 1971–3) is Managing Partner of General Electromechanical Works Ltd, one of the principal lighting companies in Greece. She explains how the practice of communication and integrated knowledge became of primary importance to her.

Greece nexus: spring 06 focus on europe

The international nature of the case studies [at WBS] helped to prepare us all for an international approach to the management function

with the site engineers. I also recognised that a key managerial responsibility is to understand the ‘technical language’ the engineers speak, together with the ‘financial language’ the accountants and the financial managers use. I realised how much more people respect and trust you if they feel that you speak the same language. Consequently, the practice of communication and integrated knowledge became of primary importance.

In terms of my own business, I came to understand that the key to success was specialisation. I realised that, in large construction projects, the lighting was just two per cent of the project but was still a headache for the general contractor.

It was at that time that I met Alexander Karakassis, who worked in the lighting field. We soon decided to join forces and

opportunity to discover the similarities and differences of management performed in many countries. After my studies in Pierce College in Greece and my diploma in Physics from the University of Athens, I felt the need to attend the MBA course at the University of Warwick in order to learn the principles of management. Being realistic and having a good knowledge of the Greek market, I soon became aware how I would adapt all the valuable knowledge from my MBA course to the Greek reality.

It is worth mentioning that although I was the only woman on the full-time MBA in my year, I soon recognised that the course was ideally designed for people from ‘well organised’ European countries. The international nature of the case studies helped to prepare us all for an international approach to the management function.

Having completed my MBA, I began work in a contractors firm in Greece. Again, I was the only woman on the management team. This made me appreciate that in order to succeed I had to define carefully the business environment in which I had to function. Realising the value of first-hand information, I knew that although I was dealing with financial information, I wanted and needed to be in direct contact

18

renders tourism important which, in turn, makes legislation for the transport industry rather restrictive. However, the recent enlargement of the European Union which has brought Austria to the geographical heart of Europe brings with it many opportunities as well as challenges. One such challenge is to improve the image of the transport sector in a country renowned for alpine beauty!

As the Managing Director of Volvo Austria GmbH, Otto has the complete responsibility for the legal entity of Volvo in Austria. His leadership responsibility is a fantastic challenge because together with his team, he has to set out the sales and marketing strategy and to generate the company objectives.

His forward thinking leadership approach promulgates that not only employee/customer satisfaction but also building business relationships are the key for the success of the company. Advocating team building to be an integral part of his management and leadership style, he is an ardent believer in giving 360 degree feedback. Otto also emphasises the importance of developing an ethical framework within the organization for effective company management.

However, Otto says that the most exciting but sometimes difficult task is to deal with Volvo’s demanding customers and prospective business. To find a balance between business requirements and the needs of customers and the sales team often seems close to an art. Spending a lot of time in supporting the Volvo sales and workshops teams is important to provide strategic direction and to generate not only strong profit but also good cash flow. The challenge in this regard is to keep all the 300 employees motivated and to give them the feeling of being part of the ‘Volvo family’.

Having tremendously enjoyed his MBA dissertation on ‘Future distribution and network structure’, Otto has since welcomed numerous MBA students from WBS to work with him at Volvo. The learning outcomes of his own dissertation were first realised in Switzerland and then

finally implemented on a European wide basis at Volvo Trucks, and where he tells us that one of his academic heroes, Professor Nigel Slack, instilled his awareness of the ‘importance-performance matrix’ which Otto still uses today.

Not content only applying what he learnt on the MBA to his working life, Otto takes every opportunity to ensure continuing personal development and lifelong learning. Having taken courses and study

the sound of enginesOtto C. Frommelt (MBA 93–4) is Managing Director of Volvo Austria GmbH and General Manager of Volvo Truck Centre Austria (which is located 30 km south of Vienna). Born in Liechtenstein and now working for a Swedish company in Austria, Otto has a truly European perspective on the benefits of the Warwick Business School education.

nexus: spring 06 focus on europe Austria

Otto has worked within the Volvo Group since 1985. His roles have been diverse

and include those of Head of Aftermarket, Chief Information Officer (CIO), Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Chairman/ Board member of dealerships, truck leasing company (financial services), truck rental company, parts sales company and non-profit organisations. He has also enjoyed several lifelong learning interludes along the way, including his MBA at Warwick.

The beauty of the Austrian landscape (which Otto assures us confirm all the clichés associated with The Sound of Music)

One of Otto’s challenges is to improve the image of the transport sector in a country renowned for alpine beauty

visits at such renowned institutions as Harvard, Wharton and Kellogg, Otto is keen to point out that he believes Warwick has a ‘first class learning environment with great potential for the future’, and he describes his own MBA as a ‘challenging but time of my life experience’.

Otto is a member of the Founders’ Association, one of WBS’s four advisory boards. Members of the Founders Association are all financial donors to WBS and their role is to help shape strategy to ensure that WBS has sufficient funds to realise its aims. As with other members of the Founders’ Association, Otto brings extensive Board experience to the table, including various Volvo boards but also currently the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), UK.

Otto’s personal ambitions include writing a book about the success formula in management, as well as being a good leader and exploring and stretching his management capabilities – something which may have helped his having been selected for the International Leadership Programme for High Potentials within the Volvo Group.

the author in minute

19Germany and Italy nexus: spring 06 focus on europe

On leaving Warwick, I returned to Germany and joined one of the larger

retail banks in mergers & acquisitions/investment banking. In 1998 I joined Siemens in their internal consulting & management auditing division. Three years later, I returned to mergers & acquisitions within one of the 14 Siemens divisions (Siemens Business Services) with responsibility for all mergers & acquisitions activities worldwide as well as some 120 different shareholdings worldwide from the shareholders perspective. In January 2005 I moved from Munich to Milan to take up the position of Chief Financial Officer for the Italian region of Siemens Business Services division with 1,400 employees and a ¤300m turnover, split by four legal entities.

Founded in 1847, Siemens is probably one of the most international organisations in the world, operating in more than 190 countries. It has 430,000 employees and generates a turnover of more than ¤75 billion in some 250 different business segments. One of the largest divisions is in Italy, where almost 10,000 employees generate a turnover of some ¤3.5 billion.

For career progression within Siemens, you must have worked for the company in at least two different countries and languages, two different divisions, have spent time both in operations and in a staff function. Job rotation is a must at Siemens, overseen by HR. The opportunities are virtually unlimited if you are flexible and challenges can be found almost everywhere.

After ten years I am still applying the tools and knowledge gained at WBS, which remain surprisingly up to date. The most valuable skills I learnt were to work and study in a truly international environment, to question things not only in the traditional way, to always grasp the larger picture and to understand, that while no individual is perfect, a team can be.

The Italian management culture is similar to the Anglo-Saxon model with a CEO at the top and the CFO below. However, the Siemens culture is different, having a management team of equal level consisting of CEO and CFO with separate reporting

from Munich to MilanChristian von Strotha (MBA 94–5) is CFO for Siemens Business Services, Italian division, based in Milan. He describes the move from Warwick to Munich and subsequently to Milan and how the tools and skills learnt at WBS still stand him in good stead today.

lines. One of the challenges to tackle was therefore to strengthen the controlling part of the business. In Italy, decisions are traditionally made at the top and passed down. A prior discussion of decisions in a management circle is therefore uncommon. In business, relationships are everything, both inside and outside the company and if your people are committed, then they do their utmost for you. Several times since I arrived I have discovered something previously deemed impossible becoming possible.

Life in Italy is very enjoyable and my family and I felt quickly at home. Language can be a problem as in Italy foreign language skills are not as wide spread as you would assume. On the other hand, Italian is quick to learn and the Italians are very open minded and supportive if you try to speak the language.

Going back to when I first arrived at Warwick, I was immediately impressed by the lecturers, the infrastructure of the MBA course and my fellow students and greatly enjoyed my year. The teachings of Peter McKiernan, Stuart Chambers and Nigel Sykes, and the late Professor Peter Doyle’s sharp, precise and always humorous analyses, sometimes far from politically

correct, were particularly memorable for me. We worked and studied hard but there was always time for a party at the weekend, a round of golf in the summer and a trip to INSEAD to beat them at rugby!

My door into Warwick was opened by someone else and while there I received a great deal of support. Since graduation I have been called several times by applicants for jobs and projects. Sometimes the queries were somewhat naive; for example someone who wants to work for Siemens but has no idea concerning job types, markets, or business. However, I try to help by establishing contacts and opening doors in order to give something back. I’m still proud of my Warwick MBA and grateful for the time I spent there, the experience I gained, the people I met and the subsequent opportunities to meet fellow alumni. I am also happy to support WBS by interviewing applicants and attending recruitment fairs.

What comes next, I do not know. The next job will most likely be back in Germany – although Italy would also be a great place to stay.

The most valuable skills I learnt [at WBS] were to work and study in a truly international environment, to question things not only in the traditional way, to always grasp the larger picture and to understand, that while no individual is perfect, a team can be

20

Would you like to have a say in what goes on at WBS?

Would you like to help shape our alumni strategy?

If those questions are of interest to you, or someone you know, then why not apply for a position on the Alumni Board? We are seeking applicants from all courses, decades and industries. The Board meets three times annually and works hard throughout the year to engage the alumni community at large.

More details are available online. Alternatively, you can email Nathalie Walker, Head of Alumni Relations, or Henri Winand, Chair of the Board. Contact us: e alumni@wbs.ac.uk or call us on +44 (0)24 7652 2813

keeping in touchOne of our volunteers – Mischa Du Pont (MBA 03–4) shares his experience of working to build lasting links between alumni in Sweden and the School.

Being a member of the full time MBA course was a great experience, not only

from an academic perspective, but from a personal perspective too. During the year I had the opportunity to meet people from a wide array of backgrounds, from countries that spanned almost every continent.

Upon completion of my MBA, I moved to Stockholm and secured a job as Bid Manager at an international software company. I have found the environment to be very dynamic, as I am directly involved in selling major accounts to companies all over the globe. I was immediately impressed with the number of people in Sweden who had received MBAs from WBS. The main reason for this was that Warwick has been cooperating with FEI (a Swedish academic business institution) for many years. A few of us decided to build upon the strength of Warwick in Sweden and organize an official association in cooperation with FEI.

Over the past six months, many alumni in Sweden have been active in building the Swedish WBS Alumni Association, which has now offered several gatherings. We are very positive about alumni growth over the next year. We have several Warwick events planned in the next six months and are also representing WBS at the Swedish International Business School Alumni – an informal association that represents some of the top MBA programmes in the world.

We all feel that being part of the association is not only a great way to stay in touch and network with each other, but also a very effective way to continue to build a strong brand name for Warwick in Scandinavia. I am very happy to be one of the people who have been involved in helping to build the Swedish Warwick Alumni Association. I would encourage all Warwick alumni, wherever they live, to stay in contact with each other and help to further build our brand name around the world.

e mischadupont@yahoo.com

nexus: spring 06 focus on europe

Mischa Du Pont

all contributions!If you would like to contribute to nexus then do please get in touch with me by email.

The focus for our next issue will be Entrepreneurship and we would particularly like to hear from you if you are running your own business, to highlight the entrepreneurial nature of WBS alumni.

e pam.barnes@wbs.ac.uk

Expect your next issue of our sister publication Warwick – the magazine in March.

Alumni Boardapplications invited

21

postcard from Poland MPA students attended the International Summer School at U Ziyada, just outside Kracow, Poland in August 2005, for The Challenge of Change: New Public Management and Public Governance in a Managerial Perspective module.

european links nexus: spring 06 focus on europe

WBS launches LinkedIn groupWBS has launched a dedicated group within LinkedIn, the online professional networking service.

LinkedIn is a service that allows individuals to establish and widen their own personal and professional networks. It works by enabling users to tap into their wider circle of contacts and potentially discover connections that they did not know they had, which may lead to new business or job opportunities or knowledge exchanges.

Members of the WBS group will see the WBS logo appear in their personal profiles, thus promoting the School and adding weight to the individual’s profile. WBS group members will be able to view and search across all LinkedIn users who are WBS group members, as a potential way of establishing new connections. All connections are controlled and constructed by the individual, link by link.

Nathalie Walker, Head of Alumni Relations, comments: ‘By setting up the WBS LinkedIn group, we are simply supporting age-old behaviour patterns of recommendations, introductions and trust amongst alumni. We are letting these happen online and hopefully promoting meaningful associations amongst our Alumni.’ If you are NOT currently a LinkedIn user and would like to join the WBS LinkedIn group, first go to go to www.linkedin.com to set up your free personal account. To join the WBS group send an email to alumni@wbs.ac.uk quoting the name and email address you use for your LinkedIn account. You will then be supplied with a link to follow in order to become a WBS group member.

• 20% of the Alumni Board of European (non-British) origin• Regional co-ordinators in France, Germany, Greece, Sweden• Regular alumni events in Belgium, France, Germany, Greece,

Sweden, Switzerland• Ten alumni events held in European cities in 2005

courses with European links• Undergraduate in International Business (languages French,

German, Italian, Spanish)• Masters in European Industrial Relations• MBA: Our Partnership in International Management (PIM)

partners include: HEC, Paris; ESADE, Barcelona; SDA, Bocconi, Milan; St Gallen, Switzerland and Stockholm School of Economics

• bilateral agreements with University of Mannheim and Copenhagen Business School

• we run a one week module on European Business with Solvay in Brusssels

• we have run a Corporate Environmental Management module with Lund in Sweden

• annual MPA module taught in Poland • Corporate Citizenship Unit – founding partner of the European

Academy for Business in Society• Industrial Relations Research Unit (IRRU) – founding partner of

the EU Industrial Relations Observatory

facultyEditorial board member of the European Accounting Review (Thomas Ahrens), external member of the Max Planck Institute for Social Research at Cologne (Colin Crouch), European editor of the Journal of Product and Brand Management (Richard Elliot), member of the European Group for Organisational Studies (Nicole Gillespie, Philip Hancock), founder member and board member of the European Operations Management Organisation (Bob Johnston), member of the European Accounting Association (Rihab Khalifa), member of the European Sociological Association (Xavier Lemaire), research manager of the European Academy for Business in Society (Anupama Mohan), European co-editor of the Journal of Management Inquiry (Andrew Sturdy), vice-president of the European Foundation for Management Development (efmd) (Howard Thomas) and chair of the European Group for Organisation Studies (EGOS) (David Wilson). See P4.

WBS in Europe: did you know?

alumni residenceBelgium 90 Cyprus 296Czech Rep. 4 Denmark 33Finland 13 France 172Germany 209 Gibraltar 4Greece 353 Iceland 9Italy 125 Lithuania 1Luxembourg 15Malta 22Netherlands 96Poland 12Portugal 45Rep. of Ireland 72Romania 5Slovenia 2Spain 63Sweden 112Turkey 47Ukraine 2

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building development22

WBS building for the future

The School needs to create an accessible and stimulating building that draws together a faculty split on three sites. All recent reaccreditations by premier management education associations state the importance of the building development in securing the future of Warwick Business School.

WBS is currently amid a £30m building development that will change the feel and strength of education at WBS. This is crucial in implementing the business plan that has been written to secure and further our position as the very best University-based business School in Europe with an international standing, taken seriously alongside global competitors.

success builds success

be part of the process

and help us secure the next phase

Phase 1 of the building was completed in 2002 and cost £8m.

Phase 2 of the building will be completed by September 2006, with a committed £9m investment.

Phase 3 will cost a further £12m, creating a WBS community integrated on one site.

the three phases of building work.

For further information about the building development, making a donation, naming

opportunities within the School or any of the areas outlined in this article, please contact

development.office@wbs.ac.uk or go-online to www.wbs.ac.uk/about/development

artist’s impression

artist’s impression

23

23building development and undergrads update

WBSS had a very busy first term with the society proving very popular

with the first years. We can now boast to be one of the largest if not the largest society on campus. A very successful ‘Introduction to the Society Evening’ was held in conjunction with the WBS Alumni Association. This was also the kick off point for our new mentorship scheme. Each first year was assigned a second or third year mentor to help them settle into both the Business School and the University.

The corporate side of the society has also had a busy time. Goldman Sachs held an application and CV skills session for all second and third years busy applying for internships and graduate positions. We have many companies coming in over the next term to give students an insight into

the different roles available, for example within investment banking, marketing, accountancy or consultancy.

However, the society has not been all work and no play. Our social committee again surpassed themselves with a fantastic wine bar social which aimed to give the first years a glimpse of the Leamington social scene whilst also providing them with an opportunity to meet second and third year students. The renowned ‘Warwick Business Ball’, the highlight of the winter term’s social calendar, was a huge success. Guests enjoyed a champagne reception and five course dinner before being subjected to the side-splitting wrath of comedian Richard Blackwood. All in all a busy but fulfilling start to the year for WBSS.

undergrads updateby Helen Brand, President, Warwick Business School Society (WBSS)

IT centre To further learning styles, including use of cutting edge technology; group activities; project based activity; connecting to WBS’ overseas partner institutions. The centre will include two structured teaching rooms with PCs, a flexible study area incorporating workstations, Reuters terminals and connectivity for student laptops, where students can create their own learning environment or an atmosphere that will aid project work and recreate business sites.

President Helen Brand

teaching spaceWith all teaching housed within one building, students will not need to be taught across campus, furthering the sense of community. Facilities will include seven 80-seat lecture theatres; four 40-seat lecture/seminar spaces; five seminar rooms and six syndicate rooms.

social hubFurthering communication, cultivating a sense of collaboration and encouraging the sharing of ideas across programmes and Faculty.

hall of fameA space where success can be celebrated and appropriate recognition made: from features of distinguished visitors to alumni awards and donor recognition to achievements of the WBS community.

undergraduate social spaceAn element that has been lacking at WBS since the rapid evolution to student numbers today of 2,400 business degree and related module undergraduate students.

Key features of the building development include:

artist’s impression

24

their particular field. There is also the dedicated support team, providing essential and efficient administration as well as responding promptly and sympathetically to students’ problems and difficulties – a team that has given personal care and attention to each and every student throughout the 20 years of the programme.’

Students still have a personal tutor allocated for each subject they study, but nowadays, instead of communicating with their tutors by letter or telephone, students can contact them by email and develop a more immediate and sustained relationship.

Those first students would also recognise the September Seminar – an annual event combining intensive lectures and study with the chance to network with fellow students and experience first-hand the excitement and stimulation of being a post-graduate student at Warwick. The ‘work hard, play hard’ ethos of these events continues undiminished, with the sessions on the final Saturday of the seminar proving the toughest of the whole week after the previous evening’s course dinner and party!Optional weekend seminars

Dr Stephanie Stray, Senior Lecturer in Operational

Research, ORIS Group, has been involved right from the start. For all DL students, Stephanie plays a key role in their introduction to WBS, in addition to lecturing at the September seminar. She was also the third Director of the programme, succeeding Roy Johnston in 1991.

Stephanie recalls: ‘After I accepted the post at WBS and before I actually took up my position, George Bain, then Dean of WBS, called me and asked me to put together some notes for a new course, which he estimated would just be a page or two of A4! This was the beginning of Quantitative Methods (the fore-runner of MAM) and the start of Part A of the DLMBA.

For the first few years, the programme was run by Wolsey Hall, an Oxford-based college with experience in providing correspondence courses for the Forces based overseas. At that stage WBS just dealt with admissions and the September seminars. Originally September seminars took place in WBS, Hong Kong and Singapore, when up to 20 academics would teach two days in Hong Kong and then two in Singapore. Although this involved a lot of chasing to and fro there were advantages. You do not often get 20 academic staff together across all the disciplines and a greater understanding of what others were doing was gained, common areas of interest

20 years of the DLMBA

24

identified and joint research opportunities ensued.

In 1990 the DLMBA came in-house. This involved a steep learning curve for WBS in terms of study needs, in-house publishing, distribution of materials and the tutoring system.

Stephanie teaches on Part A for one and a half days on the September Seminar, so her students change each year. As well as Part A, Stephanie frequently participates in the Induction days for the new students in January and July, which often makes her the first point of contact for students. She says: ‘The students respond positively to coming to Warwick. What surprised us most originally was the breadth of people on the programme, of all ages, and once we opened it up to more and more students overseas, the wealth of demand there was from people who could not have studied by any other means.’

So would those first students from 1986 recognise the programme that is operating now? In many ways it would seem very different from the programme they studied but in other important ways it is unchanged.

Sue Beech, current Programme Manager, confirms, ‘The central core of the programme remains the purpose-written study notes, developed and reviewed annually by faculty – all specialists in

20 years of the DLMBA

In 2006 the MBA by Distance Learning programme celebrates twenty years of successful operation. Over 2,500 students have graduated from the programme and there are currently over 1,800 active students in over 90 countries across the globe.

were also a feature of the programme from its inception, and continue today, although perhaps not quite as popular as previously, since students now have a wider range of opportunities to share experiences and views through online discussion areas and virtual study groups.

Those first students were dependent on the postal service and occasional telephone conversations for their contact with the programme (some study materials were even sent in diplomatic bags!) whereas today’s students have the immediacy of internet and email support. In the early days it might take several weeks, even months, to submit an assignment by post and get it marked and returned, particularly for those students living in more remote countries; today submission and return takes place via the web and students frequently get feedback within days. Stephanie adds, ‘Submissions were handwritten in the early days as we could not assume people had a computer, so a fair amount of deciphering skill was necessary.’Similarly, programme administration has been streamlined and speeded up through web-based

first graduation cohort 1989

25

developments. No more massive mail-outs to inform students about examinations and events – a message on the website provides the relevant information as well as opportunities for booking events and accommodation.Local study groups were always encouraged, where students could meet on a regular basis and provide support and encouragement to each other. This was fine if you lived close to other students – but if you were living in an isolated village in the Sahara desert or prospecting in the Amazon jungle, you were on your own! Now even these students can enjoy similar benefits through joining a virtual study group, meeting online until the September Seminar enables them to meet face-to-face.

Since it began, the programme team has consistently followed a policy of continuous development, based on feedback from students and tutors as well as review of the market and competitors’ offerings. As a result, there is now a range of assessment methods rather than all subjects being assessed by examination; the programme can be completed in three years rather than four; there is a far wider range of elective subjects, as well as a choice of how to study them – online or as 5-day face-to-face blocks as well as by distance learning; there is the flexibility to change study mode to modular or full-time if personal circumstances change; and the study notes are supplemented with a variety

20 years of the DLMBA

25

celebration time!

Put 30 September in your diary as the date for the special event to celebrate the DLMBA 20th anniversary. More details to follow

DLMBA timeline

of learning resources such as online self-assessments, digital audio interviews with subject leaders, multimedia case studies and multimedia presentations.

In the early years, there was little financial support available to students; through the sustained efforts of the programme team to obtain the same opportunities for distance-learning as for full-time, today’s DL students can take advantage of loans from AMBA. Most recently, WBS has introduced a number of competitive scholarships, available to each intake. Sue concludes, ‘the programme is unchanged in terms of its high quality and dedication to the needs of its

history

The DLMBA team is hoping to produce a history of the Programme so far and full details will be posted on our web site

students. However, improved internet and communications technologies have enabled us to add value to the core of the programme, providing a more connected, less isolated experience; students have more opportunity to discuss their studies with their peers and interact with other students throughout the world – a truly global MBA.’

20 year anniversary and celebration event

2006

Dubai partnership 2003

1st online module

online self-assessment

2001

2000th graduate – Valerie Lachman

email submission of TMAs

2000

discussion areas – web board 1998

student websites 1997

Greek partnership

September Seminar website

1996

1st MBA student achieved PhD (Sue Bridgewater)

1000th graduate – Tim Rosen

1995

email conferencing pilot

1st DLMBA to achieve AMBA accreditation

1994

Swedish partnership

email access to team

1993

Lombard Scheme (with Ch. Inst. Bankers)

Stephanie Stray takes over as Director

1991

newsletter launch – AMBASSADOR

parting from Wolsey Hall – authoring & production inhouse

1st Hong Kong graduates

1990

1st UK graduates 1989

Hong Kong and Singapore partnerships

1987

launch with Wolsey Hall 1986

26

achievement awardAt the Gloucestershire County Council Social Services 5th Annual Awards Ceremony on 25 May at Gloucester Cathedral, Carey Wallin, (MPA 02–5), was presented with a special award celebrating her academic achievement by Margaret Sheather, Executive Director. A double celebration for Carey, who graduated from WBS in July 2005.

expert opinionIn the Independent on Sunday on 19 June, a feature entitled Enterprise at the heart of the community on ethnic minority entrepreneurs launching record numbers of start-ups thanks to local funding and support, quoted WBS alumnus Professor Monder Ram OBE (PhD Industrial & Business Studies 89–92), now Director of the Centre for Research into Ethnic Minority Enterprise (CREME) at De Montford University in Leicester.

Monder believes the strength of family and community networks can have an indirect benefit if businesses do try and obtain financial support from banks and other external sources.

RHS awardSimon Ainley (DLMBA 94–01) was awarded an RHS silver award for the garden that he designed and built at the 2005 Gardeners’ World Live Show at the NEC. 100,000 visitors came to the show and Simon was presented to the HRH Prince of Wales because the garden had many elements that ‘chimed’ with the interests of the Prince and the Duchess of Cornwall. He left corporate life in April 2004 and set up his own business as a garden design and build company trading as Simon Venn Ltd in Rugby. w www.simonvenn.co.uk

winning the raceTrixie Gadd, Administrative Director, Undergraduate Programme (EXMBA 98–02) gives her personal account of the highs and lows of the world’s toughest yacht race.

‘On Saturday 16 July 2005, yacht BG SPIRIT crossed the finish line of the 2004/5 Global Challenge to take first place in the final leg, and accept the Princess Royal Trophy for winning the race overall, having won three of the seven legs. It had been nine and a half months since we’d left Portsmouth, and at times I thought I’d never make the finish due to serious neck and back injuries, so my predominant emotion was relief rather than elation.

The most physically demanding legs of the race were those which took us through the Southern Ocean, one of the most inhospitable places on the planet. Between Sydney and Cape Town we faced gale force winds on 27 of the first 32 days of the leg, and survived batterings by waves bigger than I could have imagined, 65 ft high at times. As the personal injuries mounted it became increasingly difficult for the remaining crew to keep the boat going as fast yet as safely as possible.

Six months on, I’m proud to have completed what is billed as ‘the world’s toughest yacht race’, and can begin to reflect on what I’ve learned.’

alumni news

26

success storyAn article featuring WBS alumna Kiki Maurey (MBA 90–1) appeared in The Sunday Times in June. Headlined Self-improvement: Consultant cleaned up with an MBA the feature outlined her life history to date focusing on the part that the Warwick MBA played in turning her life around. From doing part-time cleaning jobs around the village where she lives, she now runs her own consultancy firm KMCS, works as a consultant to the Department of Trade and Industry and is a former associate director of Prowess, the women’s enterprise association. Kiki puts this amazing transformation down to her decision to study for an MBA at 38.

27

facing the challengeIn the Workington Times & Star on 12 August a feature headlined Allerdale can punch above its weight profiled Gillian Bishop (MPA 00–4), new chief executive of Allerdale Borough Council. At 33 Gillian is one of the country’s youngest local authority chief executives. Commenting on her appointment and her plans for the future, Gillian said, ‘Any senior position is challenging and, irrespective of age and background, you have got to be clear about what you are going to do and why, then deliver. My style is about collaboration and team working.’

alumni news

27

joined the fightOn 8 June, Mark Outhwaite (MBA 1992–3) Partner, OuthwaiteHobbs LLP, joined an impressive panel of speakers including Sir Stephen Lander, former Director General of MI5, at The Banker’s Third Annual Conference Combating Financial Crime 2005, at The London Stock Exchange. The conference received front page coverage in the Financial Times under the headline ‘Anti-crime chief signals partnership with private sector in money-laundering probes’

With over 20 years experience at international banks in the City, Mark has more recently specialised in Risk Assessment and Control, Anti-Money Laundering and Compliance. w www.outhwaitehobbs.com

prestigious awardDr Paula Jarzabkowski, Reader in Strategic Management, Aston Business School (WBS doctoral programme 97–00), has beenawarded a prestigious AIM Ghoshal Fellowship by the Advanced Institute of Management to conduct research on two projects. The first examines the implementation of conflicting strategies

in regulated firms. The second investigates the adoption and relevance of strategic management tools and frameworks for business school graduates.

wedding bellsCongratulations to Paul Carroll and Atsuko Hayashi on their wedding in June. Paul and Atsuko met on the full-time MBA 2002–3 and regularly attend the alumni gatherings in Oxford and London. Former classmates from the MBA attended the wedding, Trevor Hacket was best man and Natalia Kirgetova travelled from Moscow to join the celebrations.

appointmentsBruce Bale (BSc Management Sciences 01–4) joins the senior management team at Premier League club West Ham United, with responsibility for the commercial strategy and revenues.

Ian Charlesworth (Msc MSOR 96–7) has joined Ovum, the analyst and consulting company, as a Senior Analyst in its Software Practice.

Otto Frommelt (FMBA 93–4) has moved to Vienna to take up the position of Managing Director of Volvo Austria GmbH and General Manager of Volvo Truck Centre Austria

Ferdinand Porák (FMBA 97–8) has been appointed Head of Representative Office Buenos Aires

and Senior Representative Latin-America of AIG Private Bank.

Ravi Mahendra (DLMBA 01–4) has moved from Sri Lanka to the UK on a Highly Skilled Migrant (HSMP) visa and takes up a position as a lead financial analyst with GE Home Lending.

Marcelo Rocha (MBA 97–8) has been appointed CFO of Pitang, in Recife, Brazil. Pitang is the IT services and consulting spin-off of the highly awarded CESAR organization, located in Recife, Brazil.

Sam Sen (DLMBA 88–93) has been appointed Co-President of Petrogen Corporation in Houston, managing all corporate activities related to business development.

Alumni AssociationWarwick Business SchoolUniversity of WarwickCoventry CV4 7ALUnited Kingdomt +44 (0)24 7652 2813f +44 (0)24 7652 3719E alumni@wbs.ac.ukW www.wbs.ac.uk/alumni

Pam BarnesAlumni Publications Officert +44 (0)24 7652 4396e pam.barnes@wbs.ac.uk

Sue CresswellEvents Coordinatort +44 (0)24 7657 3967e sue.cresswell@wbs.ac.uk

Caroline HughesAlumni Relations Executivet +44 (0)24 7652 8487E caroline.hughes@wbs.ac.uk

Emily Jamieson and Katharine JonesDevelopment and Alumni Relations AssistantsT +44 (0)24 7652 2813E emily.jamieson@wbs.ac.ukE katharine.jones@wbs.ac.uk

Nathalie WalkerHead of Alumni RelationsT +44 (0)24 7652 4176E nathalie.walker@wbs.ac.uk

In-house photography byJohn Weatherly and Derek Cooknell Nexus is the magazine of the Alumni Association, Warwick Business SchoolT +44 (0)24 7652 4306

The views contained in nexus are those of contributors and not necessarily those of Warwick Business School or the University of Warwick

Design by Morse-Brown Design w www.morsebrowndesign.co.uk

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