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Warwick Business School Alumni Association magazine: summer 06

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As Dean of one of Europe’s leading business schools

I am delighted that this summer’s graduation will take our alumni community to over 20,000. I hope that we can inspire you all to tell our story strongly to the outside world and promote our brand, thus ensuring that WBS goes from strength to strength.

A tremendous boost to the School has come in the last few months with a gift to WBS of £500,000 from the University’s Chancellor, Sir Nick Scheele. I would like to reiterate my personal thanks for this gift. Sir Nick, who was President and COO of Ford Motor Company until February 2005, said: ‘Throughout my career in business, I have supported the concept of leading by example and accordingly have donated a gift of £500,000 in the hope that others will follow suit so that we can begin to redress the balance with our friends [at business schools] in the USA and compete on a more even playing field.’

I am delighted to announce that this very generous gift was followed shortly after by several other major donations to WBS from graduates. As funding from the government continues to play a less significant role in our sources of portfolio income here at WBS such additional

message from the dean

resources will pave the way to ensuring that we can compete with the very best in terms of attracting and maintaining the very best faculty and students, and also offering world class facilities.

As the academic year draws to a close and our new building nears completion, it is time to bid a fond farewell to the current Vice-Chancellor, Professor David VandeLinde. Throughout his time at Warwick David has been a loyal supporter of WBS and personally championed the idea that WBS should enjoy the devolved budgetary status that we now do. Without a doubt the progress made by WBS in the last five years would not have been possible without David’s support. We wish him the very best in his retirement.

WBS is regularly described as having fostered an entrepreneurial spirit in its students and this edition of nexus gives you a glimpse of that. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I have. I look forward to hearing your own tales of entrepreneurship over the years to come – do keep us posted!

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contents

WBS newsteaching entrepreneurshipNigel Sykesgetting startedRobbie Vann-Adibéfrom Dragons’ Den to ERProfessor Harry Scarbroughin mint conditionTim Morganthe habitual entrepreneur phenomenonProfessor Paul Westheadsmart choiceDr Frank Craigentrepreneurship and development financeAndrew Triggsocial entrepreneurshipDr Paul TraceyWBS development programmeWBS alumni boardvolunteers in actionoverseas event reviewsUK event reviewsalumni news

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Research by Dr Sue Bridgewater, MSM group, revealed that over 500 managers for the four top English divisions have been dismissed from their post since 1992, bringing damaging

instability to the game. However, she also outlined how a new professionalism in the post of manager is already achieving results on the pitch and could thus help managers stay in post longer. Sue’s report demonstrated a significant change in the fortunes of managers brought about by the increasing uptake of relevant

Dr Lynne Oats, Senior Lecturer in Accounting and Taxation, has received an award from the Centre for Business Performance,

Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, to investigate the changing role of accounting in the corporate tax compliance process. The project, to be conducted with Penelope Tuck, University of Southampton, will examine the ways in which the recent trend towards alignment of accounting and tax profits in the UK affects the relationship between HM Revenue and Customs and large corporate taxpayers.

Much discourse about public services reform appears to hinge on the need for public organisations to become more innovative. Yet, innovation in the

public service sector is poorly understood, and there is an over-reliance on models of innovation from the private sector.

Research, workshops and teaching by Professor Jean Hartley, of the Institute of Governance and Public Management, aim to fill this gap. Her work has developed ideas and models of practical value to policy-makers and practitioners as well as contributing to academic knowledge not only about the public sector but also the private and voluntary sectors.

The public service sector is replete with examples of innovation but the drivers of

WBS’s Industrial Relations Research Unit (IRRU) has been awarded a major contract to provide information and analysis for a new EU research network

monitoring developments in industrial relations, working conditions and corporate restructuring. As well as providing a range of inputs focusing on UK developments, IRRU is one of just three institutes across the EU chosen to coordinate the preparation of a series of comparative, analytical reports on key EU-wide topics. The contract for this work is worth up to €275,000 per year and will run for four years. The project started in March, supervised by Principal Research Fellow Mark Hall.

The new network, sponsored by the Dublin-based European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, is intended primarily to serve the needs of a core audience of employers’ associations and trade unions at national and European level, governments and EU institutions. It will replace three separate EU ‘observatories’, including the European Industrial Relations Observatory, which IRRU has been part of since its inception in 1996, and the more recent European Working Conditions Observatory, for which IRRU has provided UK data since April 2005.

Dr Simon Collinson, MSM, recently elected Lead Ghoshal Fellow under the ESRC and EPSRC sponsored Advanced Institute of Management

(AIM), has commenced work on two further ESRC funded projects. One to study British small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in China to understand the challenges they face in alliances and joint-ventures with Chinese firms. The project will provide insights into the problems of entering and operating in China for firms that have limited resources and expertise but see huge opportunities in this emerging market.

research reviewnexus: summer 06

Mark Hall IRRU

Mark Hall and Professor Mike Terry, IRRU, with Professor John Purcell, University of Bath, have been awarded a major two to four year research project for the Department of Trade and Industry. The contract, worth £190,000 over the first two years, involves assessing organisational responses to the recent Information and Consultation of Employees (ICE) Regulations.

Sue Bridgewater MSM

Lynne Oats AFIN

Jean Hartley IGPM

Simon Collinson MSM

The second is a comparative study of European multinational firms in China, also looking at joint-ventures and alliances. A central question is: who is learning what in such partnerships and why does it matter? The study, run jointly with Mark Easterby-Smith at Lancaster University, examines the possibility that European firms are ‘breeding their future competitors’ in China. The findings will help EU firms better understand the challenge of engaging with China whilst retaining their own competitive advantages. Simon adds, ‘A number of UK and European firms already involved in the study have been introduced by WBS alumni. I’m interested in hearing from any alumni working for UK or EU firms that are involved in joint-ventures or alliances in China who are willing to participate.’ E simon.collinson@wbs.ac.uk

innovation include not only managers and staff, but also politicians and service users. Public sector innovation needs to be judged against different criteria of success from the private firm. For the latter, organisational advantage is the metric of success, whereas the measure for public services is public value, which concentrates on benefits for the whole of society not solely the individual organisation.

Jean’s research is funded through the Economic and Social Research Council’s Advanced Institute of Management (AIM), of which she is a Public Service Fellow. She also leads a large research programme examining the diffusion of innovation in local government. Her major report on innovation was recently published on a government website.

W www.communities.gov.uk/pub/176/InnovationanditsContributiontoImprovementAReviewExecutiveSummary_id1500176.pdf

professional qualifications by managers and prospective managers. This relatively recent interest in gaining professional management qualifications is already making a real difference to management performance and thus length of tenure in management posts. Both the Pro License and the Certificate in Football Management run by WBS are proving increasingly attractive to managers and prospective managers seeking to add managerial insight to their considerable football skills.

To download the reportw www.wbs.ac.uk/downloads/research/football-managers-0106.pdfFor more information on the Certificate in Football Managementw www.wbs.ac.uk/executive/football.cfm

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CSME hosted the International Conference on the Financing of SMEs in Developed Countries in April, building on the outcomes

and response to the ground-breaking UK research into SME finances by Dr Stuart Fraser, WBS Senior Research Fellow, (2004 UK Survey into SME Finances).

Stuart Fraser CSME

nexus: summer 06research review

hot off the press

WBS, working with University departments Computer Science and Mathematics, has been awarded £3.8 million in the second round of the Science and Innovation Awards announced by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). The award is to set up the Centre for Discrete Mathematics and its Applications led by Professor Mike Paterson of Warwick with Professor Bo Chen as a member of the Executive Team leading the WBS input.

A new report from Dr Catherine Mitchell and Dr Bridget Woodman of the WBS Centre for Management under Regulation

(CMuR) which examines the contribution nuclear power could make to the UK’s energy ‘mix’, says that if Government opts to take up the option of new nuclear build, it risks becoming locked into expensive technology that will make it harder overall to reduce carbon emissions. The authors say that while nuclear power is a low carbon technology which provides 8 percent of energy demand, a commitment

The Strategy Pathfinder by Dr Duncan Angwin, MSM, Stephen Cummings, Victoria University of Wellington, and Chris Smith, University of Adelaide (formerly at WBS), published by Blackwell. Built

around 82 micro-cases of real-life problems faced by companies and executives, drawn from a rich tapestry of business activities across Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania. w www.blackwellpublishing.com/book.asp?ref=1405126132&site=1

International Business by Alan M Rugman, Professor of International Business, Indiana University, and Dr Simon Collinson, Senior Lecturer in International Business, WBS. Outsourcing. Emerging

economies. Environmental impacts. Just three of the many key issues currently facing international businesses, all of which are examined in the fourth edition of this well respected textbook. w www.pearsoned.co.uk/rugman

Multi-Asset Class Investment Strategy by alumnus Guy Fraser-Sampson (DLMBA 85–9), published by Wiley, claims that if UK pension funds had practised multi asset class investing during the 1990s then the present funding deficit would not

exist and the recent spate of closures of final salary pension schemes would not have been necessary. w eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470027991.html

Operations and Process Management – Principles and Practice for Strategic Impact co-authored by Nigel Slack, Robert Johnston and Stuart Chambers, WBS Operations Management, with Alan Betts, published by Pearson

Education. Approaching the subject from a truly managerial perspective, the book inspires a critical and applied mastery of the core principles and processes fundamental to managing business operations.

w www.pearsoned.co.uk/slack

The Changing Institutional Face of British Employment Relations, jointly edited by Professors Linda Dickens of WBS and Alan Neal of the Law School. Published by Kluwer Law International, the volume marks the 30th anniversary of the Advisory

Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas) and provides a contemporary picture of the institutional landscape of British employment relations. W www.aspenpublishers.com

Marketing Management and Strategy was originally developed by the late Peter Doyle, WBS Professor of Marketing. Now in its 4th edition, published by Pearson Education, Philip Stern, Senior Lecturer in

Marketing and Strategic Management, has updated this comprehensive but concise and practical management guide to the important ideas in advanced Marketing and Strategy.

W www.pearsoned.co.uk/doyle

Essential Quantitative Methods for Business Management & Finance, 3rd edition by Les Oakshott, Practice Link Manager/Senior Teaching Fellow, ORIS. A concise, accessible, comprehensive

introduction to quantitative techniques emphasising business relevance and discussing the challenges of problem-solving in the real world. w www.palgrave.com/resources/btu/Business.asp#Quantitative

Taxation – Policy and Practice, 13th Edition 2006/2007 by Andy Lymer, University of Birmingham, and Lynne Oats, WBS Senior Lecturer in Accounting. Published by Fiscal Publications. Written in an accessible style with

many examples, activities and questions throughout, this textbook gives a thorough understanding of the UK’s taxation principles and current practices. w www.fiscalpublications.com

10% off We are pleased to be able to offer all WBS

alumni and staff not only a 10% reduction on this book – but through a generous offer from the publisher – a 10% reduction on ALL their books for any orders placed before the end of 2006. If you are a current student of WBS the deal is even better – 25% discount off this title as well as also qualifying for the 10% deal off the publisher’s other books. All orders must quote code:WBS2006.10 for the 10% alumni deal and WBS2006.25 for the 25% discount for students. Then quote the publishers web address and email:

e wbsoffer@fiscalpublications.com

Catherine Mitchell andBridget Woodman CMuR

by Government to build a new fleet of stations will undermine the development of the far more important renewable and demand reduction technologies which are necessary to reduce carbon emissions from the remaining 92 percent or so of energy demand. For more information on the report, published by WBS together with environmental think tank Green Alliance w www.wbs.ac.uk/news/releases/2006/04/13/Nuclear/puts/renewable

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generous giftSir Nick Scheele, Chancellor of Warwick University has donated half a million pounds to Warwick Business School and hopes it will encourage others to consider supporting the University. Sir Nick has had a long association with the University and was once a member of the WBS Board; he became the University of Warwick’s fourth Chancellor in March 2002.

Sir Nick has said, ‘The competition between

UK and USA universities is a fact of life which can be seen most significantly within our business schools. Although USA business schools got a head start, Europe, and particularly the UK have demonstrated that the provision of excellent business education can be found on this side of the water too. However, there is still one area where I perceive that the UK is at a considerable disadvantage to our North American competitors. The funds donated to universities by alumni and other beneficiaries in the USA dwarf the sums donated here. Although European Alumni now compete favourably with their North American counterparts in the salary stakes, the culture of giving to your university simply has not developed here as it has in the US.

Many of you will know that I have had a long involvement with the motor industry, but it has not necessarily been cars that have motivated me but practice of business and the science of management itself which is why I have endowed Warwick Business School with this gift.’

first fellows The National School of Government has named Dean Howard Thomas, and Professors John Benington, Jean Hartley and Colin Crouch of WBS among the first Fellows to its Sunningdale Institute – a group including internationally rated academics and industry figures, and offering development to government and public service organisations on operational and delivery issues. WBS has the biggest involvement of the participating organisations.

w www.nationalschool.gov.uk/programmes/index.asp

new degree at WBSWBS is launching a new Masters degree, the MSc in Management, starting in October 2006. The degree has been designed to meet demand from top quality graduates in subjects unrelated to business, who wish to follow a career in management but do not have the work experience necessary for The Warwick MBA.

w www.wbs.ac.uk/go/mm

The lecture provided an ideal opportunity to launch a book jointly edited by Professor Linda Dickens of WBS and Professor Alan Neal of the Law School (see hot off the press P5). Rita Donaghy, the Chair of Acas (centre) formally launched the book and Linda is pictured third from right.

STOP PRESS: The Times Good University Guide 2007 again rates WBS in the UK top three for both Business Studies and Accounting & Finance. The University as a whole maintained 8th place out of 109 UK universities.

WBS Scarman Road Phase 3 Stage 1 development moves towards completion in September 2006

the fifth annual Warwick-Acas Lowry lectureThe annual Warwick-Acas Lowry lecture was held at WBS in March, with Alan Johnson MP, Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, scheduled as the guest speaker. At the last minute the Minister had to remain in London and sent a video introducing his lecture entitled ‘The World of Work’. The lecture, delivered by one of his officials, set out the Government’s key priorities and argued that addressing these calls for a change in the role of employment legislation.

w users.wbs.warwick.ac.uk/group/irru/publications/warwick_papers

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Sailing to success

WBS news nexus: summer 06

winter graduationWBS hosted a buffet lunch for over 100 WBS graduands, their families and friends, attending the Winter Graduation ceremony at the University of Warwick on Wednesday 25 January.

The Scarman Road lounge was extended by the installation of a specially commissioned marquee within the

A WBS crew of MBA students reached second place in the Global MBA Trophy, organised by London Business School, losing only to SDA Bocconi’s crew. The crews competed for three days, in six fleet races in the port of Piraeus, Greece. Crew members: Bobo Baudin, Skipper (Sweden), Odul Akin-Rousk (Turkey), Panos Anastasiou (Greece), Gaudenzio BonaldoGregori (Italy), Evangelos Christodoulou (Greece), Filippo Riva (Switzerland/Italy), James Smith (South Africa/UK).

The team now competes in the SDA Bocconi MBA’s Cup 2006 (Santa Margherita and Portofino, Italy, 21–24 September). If anyone would like to be part of the WBS crew, or can identify sponsorship opportunities for the team, please contact Panos Anastasiou.

e panos.anastasiou05@mba.wbs.ac.uk

media round-up In the year of football’s World Cup, it was particularly appropriate that Dr Sue Bridgewater kicked off WBS media coverage with a press conference at the Warwick in London office. She presented the first stage of her research into trends in professional football management. Every seat in the room was taken, and the resulting media reports covered the full range from international satellite television to local newspapers. To date, we have logged 50 different sorts of media coverage on this topic alone.

Other faculty have been raising the WBS profile too with media coverage. Professor Martin Cave, Head of the Centre for Management under Regulation research centre, is an international and influential figure in the development of telecommunications. He chaired the ground-breaking Telecoms Regulatory Authority 2006 Development Review Panel in Bahrain, which achieved wide

coverage in the Middle East. Still abroad, WBS Dean Howard Thomas made news in the academic press of the USA when he was made Inaugural Fellow of the Strategic Management Society, joining an elite list that includes Harvard’s Michael Porter and business guru Gary Hamel.

Professor Colin Carnall, as Director of Executive Programmes at WBS, is regularly featured in training and development publications with expert comment and articles on his latest book. Professor Andrew Sturdy’s research into the use of consultants, particularly in the public sector, formed the basis of a programme for BBC Radio 4’s File on Four. Dr Catherine Mitchell and Dr Bridget Woodman are fighting a two-woman battle on the side of renewable and sustainable energy sources, in an effort to counter the nuclear industry’s current push for favourable media coverage. Catherine has appeared on BBC2’s Newsnight and written articles in The Guardian, while Bridget has been interviewed by local radio and contributed to BBC TV’s Countryfile programme.

WBS alumni have been equally active. Thomas Sparrvik (DLMBA 95–00) was the subject of an article in an international edition of the Financial Times on how his MBA has boosted his career, David McNulty (MPA 00–5) was profiled in national media about his career success in the public sector, and Nicholas Yeo (MSc Fin Maths 98–00) was quoted widely in Asian media and the Reuters newswire on the performance of stocks in the Asian markets. It is good to see other alumni in the news due to successful career moves and promotions (see alumni news P22/3).

There just isn’t room to list all the alumni and faculty who have contributed to the media for their particular areas of expertise or career success. Keep up to date with WBS in the news online – go to our recently upgraded web pages at:

w www.wbs.ac.uk/news

The eight members of the team were: Michael Brockmann, Lee Fisher, Kartik Kumar, Lillian Mbindyo, Irina Motovilova, Richard Walker, Abdoul Wane and Emmanuel Sissimatos.

winning teamAt a lunch to celebrate the end of the spring term, a £1,000 prize was presented to the winning team of MBA students for outstanding group project work on the Practice of Management (PoM) module for the academic year 2005–06. The prize was sponsored by the Fund for Academic Excellence, thanks to generous donations from alumni, friends and staff of WBS.

multimedia at WBS We now have the ability to record selected events at WBS on high quality digital video, edit them and post them on the web site as a video file, convert them into audio files for podcasts and burn them on to DVD to send to anyone who wants a high quality copy. Over recent months we have recorded press conferences, guest lectures including presentations from IBM and Mary Jo Bane from Harvard, posted a podcast by Dr Bridget Woodman on renewable energy and recorded the Winter Graduation assembly.

‘It is predominantly a tool for news gathering and assisting the external promotion of the Business School,’ said WBS Director of Communications, Vincent Hammersley. ‘However, we are fortunate to attract first class speakers and if we can capture these presentations and other selected events I see this as a major benefit to both alumni and future students.’

inner courtyard of the building. Howard Thomas, the Dean of WBS, gave a speech congratulating the graduands on their achievements and Head of Alumni Relations, Nathalie Walker, welcomed them to the WBS Alumni Association.

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to translate this into reality. What we really do at WBS is to tease out latent entrepreneurial talent. Some say ‘this isn’t for me’ and that’s a good outcome. Some, having studied the course say ‘I now know who I am and where I fit within an entrepreneurial team’, which is brilliant.

Then there are those who may have felt for some time that they had a burning desire to get something started, and they find they can fly, ignoring those negative voices that had held them back for so long... again, a very worthwhile and significant outcome. So I suppose Entrepreneurship is taught at Warwick so these 3 Ps can be avoided. In summary, we’re more about recognising and releasing entrepreneurial talent and capability, developing an encouraging rather than a critical culture, and helping people to fly out of the restrictions that can be imposed by more controlling and hierarchical structures out there.

Nigel’s background is in sales and retail management, marketing and outlet development. He is the former Enterprise Agency Director and manager of pilot Community Programme project linked to industry with Birmingham

Chamber of Industry and Commerce. Nigel works in a ‘catalytic’ role in helping to release capability and talent through individual, organisational and inter-organisational opportunities.

Research Interests: family business succession; social entrepreneurship; understanding success and evolution of firms particularly in terms of marketing and team development; international economic regeneration through small business and entrepreneurship, particularly in Eastern Europe, Latin America, DPRK (North Korea) and Zimbabwe.

teaching entrepreneurship

the author in minute

What we try to encourage in the Entrepreneurship teaching at WBS is that each student is a remarkable talent and a good entrepreneurial team recognises each other’s talents and encourages different leadership capabilities to take over the helm of the business as it and the landscape it traverses, changes.

Some are good ‘envisioners’ and lead the creativity phase and principal forming stage of the business venture. Others are good ‘enablers’ who lead the process and strategy forming stage and finally the ‘enactors’, the practical ‘doers’, even specialists. Everyone in the team gets to know and appreciate each other’s skills and talents and learns to recognise, encourage and release each other.

Finally Prostitution, the last of the 3Ps we do not teach on the Entrepreneurship option, you will be pleased to know! What on earth do I mean?

To illustrate, I taught a session at a local school recently and the students thought, ‘Here is a man from Warwick Business School, and he is going to talk about Entrepreneurship. We will go and hear about how to acquire funding and make money.’ In the first ten minutes there was a stunned look on their faces as I avoided talking about money at all.

So often the expectation is that the teacher of Entrepreneurship will just talk about where winning ideas come from and then how to make your proposition attractive to a banker or investor who will then put up the money. I would even go so far as to say that in extreme cases people find themselves saying things like:

What position would you like me in? What do you want me to do? What do you want to hear from me?

... so that I can get the money I need for my business. This is so like the oldest profession in the world isn’t it? And we can end up being slaves to money.

It is a challenge teaching Entrepreneurship beyond the theoretical constructs and

Nigel Sykes, Principal Teaching Fellow, CSME, gives an insight into his approach to teaching entrepreneurship.

I walk around and notice people speaking in acronyms. An example is the classic

four Ps of marketing. Well, here are my 3 Ps: what have Pinter (Harold the playwright), Plato and Prostitution NOT got to do with the way I teach Entrepreneurship?

Harold Pinter’s ‘The Caretaker’ is set in a one room flat and there are only two parts in the play. One, the owner of the flat, and the other, a man staying with him, who has no home and seemingly no real prospects either. That is until, we learn, he can get to Sidcup to collect his papers (his MBA?) and then he believes everything will be okay. I sometimes feel that the MBA can be seen like that but Entrepreneurship is more about developing the individual rather than focusing on the qualification.

nexus: summer 06 focus on entrepreneurship

Now to Plato who gave us the notion of a republic and Platonic dualism. Born into a wealthy ruling family in Greece, I’m sure he was a bit put out when civil unrest saw his family fall from favour. He went off and met a few Gnostics, mystics and thinkers of that time (a bit like going to WBS I suppose) and came home with a cunning wheeze. If we can encourage people to fit into a system that is controlled by the state (him) and has elected officials (supposedly but really his mates) we will create a republic or corporate structure and there will be order and everyone will behave (be controlled in other words by them) and I will be the person whose name and reputation will live on for ever as the one who thought of this cunning idea and plan. Platonic Dualism and the Republic he created is a dangerous idea really, when you consider that Gallup have found that over 80 percent of 1.2 million managers interviewed by them were not employing their talents and capabilities in their work, on a daily basis.

Everyone in the team gets to know and appreciate each other’s skills and talents and learns to recognise, encourage and release each other

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Robbie is happily married to another Warwick alum, Linda, who he met during his time at Warwick, and considers his two children his greatest start-up projects ever.

nexus: summer 06 focus on entrepreneurship

getting started

the author in minute

Robbie Vann-Adibé (MSc MSOR 84–5) is one of WBS’ most successful entrepreneurial alumni, with over 20 years of experience in technology, start-ups, consulting and financial services in the USA and Europe.

Robbie was most recently the turn-around CEO of Ecast, a San Francisco

based digital jukebox company. He developed Ecast from a start-up to an operational enterprise, paving a clear path to success in a proven multi-billion dollar market, stimulating users’ appetite for delivery of the best internet-based content – anywhere, any time.

Robbie came to campus in February 2006 to share his wealth of experience with Undergraduate, Specialist Masters and MBA students. See the box below for a few of his top insider tips on the road to entrepreneurship.

A perspective I wish I had had at the beginning of my career‘When I began my career, the criteria I used to determine where to work and who to work for were very different – I looked at things like salary, title, job description etc,

Robbie started his career as a developer on Wall Street, building trading and clearing systems at Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse First Boston. He helped launch several start-up technology companies including Seer Technologies, a CASE tools firm. He did a stint in consulting as a Senior Associate at Booz Allen Hamilton in San Francisco, where he led strategic consulting initiatives. He held various senior positions at global software giant, Oracle, and was Vice President of Product Marketing at start-up Illustra, an object-relational database company acquired by Informix. Robbie co-founded Viant in 1996, a web-consulting company, leading its global expansion. Viant completed an initial public offering in June 1999 on NASDAQ.

An active angel investor, he was an early investor in companies such as Inspired Gaming, Volantis and Sidestep.

Robbie is establishing an early stage venture firm in California with several VC friends (remember that advice about working with people who you will enjoy the journey with?) helping to advise and nurture start-ups in the San Francisco Bay area.

A few big lessonsWork in a big organisation/corporation first – you will learn a huge amount and it will stand you in good stead for start-up activity and securing VC funding – or put another way, make your early mistakes on someone else’s payroll.

Don’t over-plan – go with the flow – you never know where your next opportunity may come from.

Learn to do something really well.

Don’t burn bridges (aka shut the door but always leave a window open) – in many industries you’ll meet the same people at different junctures of your career and it’s best that they think well of you.

Cultivate your network – stay in touch with colleagues – you never know when they might need you, or you them.

Stay healthy – success without your personal health is the wrong result.

Don’t be intimidated by people smarter than you – hire them.

whereas in later years I developed a very different set of criteria for what to look for in a workplace – which were:• Do you like the people? If you like them,

you’ll be willing to take their input• Can you learn something from the people

you’ll be working with? This probably means they are good at what they do and will satisfy their customers

• Are people having fun? If they are, then it probably means the working environment will be productive; their customers satisfied and the place is functional

Technology start-ups – the basics• If you can’t afford to take 12–18 months

off with no salary – don’t do it!• Consulting is a great perch from which to

come up with new ideas – it’s essentially people paying you to tell you their problems and come up with solutions

• Try to engage a trusted resource with relevant expertise early to help vet your idea(s)

Creating a team • Technology is almost impossible to

develop alone • My experience suggests that you need

at least two people to start a successful technology based venture – the technician and the business person

• You are better off with people you’ve worked with and knowing what they are good/bad at

• Find your ‘mirror’ – having someone around who spends all the time agreeing with you is a waste of salary!

• ‘Test drive’ working together – work together to refine your idea and see what that feels like

Always scanning the horizons for opportunities, Robbie has begun to focus on the venture capital industry that has operated in the USA for some 30+ years. According to Robbie, ‘There are four trends creating new opportunities in this area. The first we are seeing is an increase in the number of entrepreneurs who are starting businesses early in their career, bootstrapping their companies and are not attracted to venture capital. The second is that venture capitalists are enjoying ‘large fund dynamics’ which preclude them from systematically making small, early stage investments.

Thirdly, IPOs are becoming harder for start-ups to achieve given the cost of compliance and the capital markets receptivity.

The fourth trend is the emergence of a new breed of acquirers who are prepared to acquire companies just on the basis of their people and technology and not as a self-sustaining business.

So given this chasm between entrepreneurs and established venture firms, Robbie strongly believes there is an opportunity for a new style of Venture Firm to work with entrepreneurs before they receive established venture capital, or are acquired. He is in the process of creating such a firm.

Robbie’s final piece of advice is, ‘Don’t get so focused on the destination that you forget to enjoy the journey.’

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Harry Scarbrough is co-founder of the IKON Research Centre and the Knowledge and Innovation Network (KIN). He is also currently Director of a major ESRC research programme on ‘The evolution of business knowledge’ which

encompasses a number of projects examining the creation and exploitation of knowledge, including his own study (jointly funded with the Cambridge-MIT Initiative) of ‘The dynamics of networked innovation’.

Research Interests: management of knowledge and learning in organisations; role of social networks in innovation processes; commercialisation of innovation.

the author in minute

from Dragons’ Den to ERProfessor Harry Scarbrough reports on current Innovation, Knowledge & Organisational Networks (IKON) research group projects.

Innovation is generally held to be critical to long-run success in the

global marketplace, yet is something that many firms do badly or not at all. This is not generally due to a lack of new science and technology opportunities (though UK firms do still under-invest in R&D). It has a lot more to do with the skills and organisational capabilities needed to exploit and commercialise such opportunities. This challenge involves firms being able to simultaneously explore and exploit knowledge – a big challenge because these tasks require very different types of management.

This is an area where the IKON research group is carrying out leading-edge research. IKON is based at Warwick but is networked with other universities in the UK, USA and Brazil. It also works closely with KIN (the Knowledge and Innovation Network), a consortium of leading international firms, including Schlumberger, Conoco Phillips, Masterfood, PwC and others.

One of IKON’s current projects is examining the exploration-exploitation challenge through a collaborative study with Boston University in the USA. I am directing this study, which involves identifying the way in which groups such as venture capitalists and corporate venture teams make investment decisions on new technology opportunities. The challenge here – echoed by the BBC TV series Dragons’ Den – where entrepreneurs pitch their ideas to secure investment – can be likened to the successful venture capitalist’s ability to identify two or three attractive propositions from the hundreds of business plans received every year. This ability to select (and reject) innovation opportunities is critical to successful commercialisation. Understanding how decision-makers inside and outside firms do this successfully, and maybe how it differs between the UK and the USA, should be a significant contribution to the debate on how the UK can make better use of the knowledge produced by its world-leading universities and research institutions.

Another IKON study (co-funded both by the ESRC’s EBK programme mentioned above and the EPSRC Warwick Innovative Manufacturing Centre) focuses on the

challenges of exploiting breakthroughs in scientific knowledge to improve medical practice. At the moment, such breakthroughs often fail to reach hospitals, even though patients are in desperate need of the new treatments they might bring. This project draws on IKON members from the universities of Warwick (Jacky Swan, Anna Goussevskaia, Ademola Obembe), Coventry (Maxine Robertson), Leicester (Mike Bresnen) and Bentley College, USA, (Sue Newell). Their study has looked at the reasons for failure and delay in this process, and whether experience from the USA has anything to teach us in the UK.

The reasons for this have to do with the dense clustering of leading science and business research centres in specific regions of the USA (especially Boston) and also the different career paths that people follow in the two countries. For example, it is common to find a clinician working in a hospital in the USA who is also simultaneously working with a biomedical company. This does lead to ethical dilemmas – see episodes of the USA TV series ER for examples. But, in general, commercial arrangements between clinicians and private companies are seen as more acceptable in the USA than the UK.

Overall then, the study has found that in the UK, there is a greater degree of separation between professional groups and between public and private organisations. This means that there is more of a need to establish ‘bridging’ mechanisms to connect the different disciplines and/or different organisations involved. By contrast, in the USA, these groups and organisations are already more tightly ‘bonded’.

KIN activities are described on its web sitew www.ki-network.org

Their work (still ongoing) shows that the exploitation of most scientific breakthroughs depends on scientists from various disciplines working together with business experts and clinicians. For example, the development of tissue engineered products (used in cartilage repair and wound treatments) needs medical scientists to collaborate with clinicians, materials scientists, biologists, geneticists, venture capitalists and lawyers. The team refers to this activity as ‘interactive innovation’ and reports that, in general, the USA is better equipped to support this kind of innovation.

nexus: summer 06 focus on entrepreneurship

This ability to select (and reject) innovation opportunities is critical to successful commercialisation. Understanding how decision-makers inside and outside firms do this successfully, and maybe how it differs between the UK and the USA, should be a significant contribution to the debate on how the UK can make better use of the knowledge produced by its world-leading universities and research institutions

11

in mint conditionTim Morgan (BSc Accounting & Financial Analysis 94–7) is Commercial Director of Mint Digital, a leading new media company that creates concepts for interactive television. Here Tim explains how he came to join forces with fellow undergraduate Andy Bell (BSc Economics 94–7), who started the company in 2004.

‘Andy and I originally met at Warwick as undergraduates in 1994. We were

separated on graduation in 1997 as our careers went on divergent paths. Andy went into interactive television whilst I joined Ernst & Young as a trainee chartered accountant. After qualifying, I spent the next five years in mergers and acquisitions.

‘In 2004 Andy started Mint Digital, an innovative new media company making interactive television. I had always hoped that one day we would run a business together, so when he told me about Mint Digital, I offered to lend a hand. Multi award winning interactive designer Noam Sohachevsky joined in November 2004 and I started to get involved at about the same time.

‘I began by helping with financial and commercial matters in my spare time since I still had a day job working in acquisitions. By the end of 2005, the company had developed to a stage where I had to make a decision; to continue my career in the City or to go full time at Mint Digital. I loved the work I was doing for Mint so much that when the opportunity came along to join full-time, I took it without hesitation.’

Mint Digital has developed a reputation for meaningful innovation, punchy content and effective design. The company has been responsible for several successful web based concepts for television clients including Channel 4, Discovery USA, and RDF Media.

Since the start of 2006, Mint has attracted private equity funding and has won many awards for its work. Most exciting of all, at the annual MIPTV (international television) festival in Cannes in April, Mint was crowned the winner of a BBC sponsored competition to develop the cutting edge media concepts of tomorrow.

This summer, Mint is launching ‘Bloombox’, a web application that makes it easy for media companies to acquire user generated content. ‘Bloombox’ is an example of the type of product that puts Mint at the centre of the convergence between old and new media.

Tim continues: ‘In Andy and Noam I have partners who are not only extremely talented but who I get on with like a house on fire. I also think that you should only start a business if you passionately believe in what you are doing since it requires a lot of hard work and it is easier if you enjoy yourself.

‘Finally, the most fulfilling thing of all is being able to be true to yourself and stick to your principles.

‘The thing I am most grateful to WBS for is the bread and butter financial and commercial education. As an undergraduate, it is easy to be seduced by the strategic side of running a business, but it is the practical day-to-day issues that are most fundamental when it comes to getting started.

‘WBS is the perfect nursery for anyone with entrepreneurial ambition. This is because of the quality of the people at the School, many of whom have a wealth of entrepreneurial experience themselves. Also there was a focus on corporate case studies that demonstrated the practical application of the financial and strategic theories that I had learnt.

‘Most of all, my experience at WBS was fun. I really look at back at my time at WBS fondly and I met a lot of great people while I was there.’

w www.mintdigital.com

nexus: summer 06 focus on entrepreneurship

Left to right: Andy, Tim and Noam

If you start a business, I think it is imperative to work with people you like and admire

12 nexus: summer 06 focus on entrepreneurship

the author in minute

Despite media hype, case study evidence suggests that not all habitual entrepreneurs who own more than one business, either sequentially (serial entrepreneurs) or concurrently (portfolio entrepreneurs), are consistently successful. My book is based on survey evidence involving a representative sample of 730 private firms in Great Britain. A human capital approach was used to explore the general and specific profiles of habitual entrepreneurs with prior business ownership experience and novice entrepreneurs with no prior business ownership experience to leverage. The contribution of business ownership experience vis-à-vis other dimensions of human capital was explored within a multivariate regression framework.

Key findings Scale: Habitual entrepreneurs owned 52% of surveyed firms. In total, 162 firms involved serial entrepreneurs whilst a further 216 firms involved portfolio entrepreneurs.

Background: Habitual entrepreneurs were more likely to be men and generally reported business ownership family backgrounds. They cited a high level of similarity between current and previous businesses.

Opportunities: Habitual entrepreneurs identified more opportunities over a five-year period and pursued a higher proportion than novice entrepreneurs. More opportunities were identified by highly educated entrepreneurs who had engaged in intensive information search as well as those who had leveraged their managerial and entrepreneurial capabilities.

Information: Habitual entrepreneurs searched for information less intensively but used additional knowledge from employees, consultants, financiers and government sources more frequently. Entrepreneurs citing high entrepreneurial capability searched for information more intensively, used additional sources and identified more opportunities. Paradoxically, those entrepreneurs reporting higher information search pursued fewer opportunities. Information overload may, therefore, be a problem. Performance: Businesses owned by habitual entrepreneurs did not report superior levels

of sales or employment growth. Habitual entrepreneurs who had previously ‘failed’ reported lower levels of living standards.

Human capital: Habitual entrepreneurs were less likely to focus on their perceived technical capability. Superior firm performance was associated with highly educated entrepreneurs and those leveraging managerial and entrepreneurial capabilities. Weaker firm performance was linked with entrepreneurs citing only technical capabilities.

Key implications Business ownership experience: The assets and liabilities of business ownership experience need to be considered. Habitual entrepreneurs possess both the inclination and ability to identify opportunities but some lack the skills and capabilities to exploit them fully.

Venture performance: Studies that focus solely on firm performance (ie sales and employment growth and profitability) may fail to provide an understanding of the entrepreneurial human capital drivers linked to the opportunity identification that creates future wealth. Habitual entrepreneurs who identify more than one opportunity have better choices and have the resources to pursue more opportunities. Portfolio entrepreneurs accumulate larger personal wealth. Compared to other entrepreneurs, portfolio entrepreneurs take smaller amounts of money out of each business, but have more businesses to draw upon.

Resources: The resources needed to identify opportunities may not necessarily be the same as those required to manage successful individual ventures. Habitual entrepreneurs need to accumulate and leverage managerial and entrepreneurial capabilities.

Customised external support: In addition to specific advice on new firm creation, practitioners, consultants and government agents should provide customised support (ie information, training, advice, etc) targeted at the specific needs of habitual entrepreneurs. Business failure rates may be reduced considerably if additional support is made available to facilitate business idea evaluation and feasibility analysis. To enable more entrepreneurs to identify

opportunities, support agents need to improve the provision of information. Habitual entrepreneurs also require assistance with converting imagination, creativity and innovation into better quality opportunities that are problem/market focused with greater wealth creating potential. Novice entrepreneurs need to be made aware that simply being in possession of technical knowledge, and a related idea, does not guarantee a successful business. Novice entrepreneurs should be encouraged to use sources of information utilised by habitual entrepreneurs.

Failure: The view that ‘failure is the fuel of success’ was not validated by this study. Initiatives supporting ‘failing’ entrepreneurs to return to entrepreneurship may be promoting a culture of failure. Assistance may be required to foster intelligent failure, which seeks to change an entrepreneur’s mindset and behaviour to overcome personal biases (ie hubris and denial).

The habitual entrepreneur phenomenon (Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham), is due out at the end of November.

the habitual entrepreneur phenomenonIn a forthcoming book, Paul Westhead, WBS Professor of Enterprise, provides the first systematic study of habitual entrepreneurs. Here he reveals the key findings and implications of his research.

Paul Westhead, WBS Professor of Enterprise, Centre for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises. Visiting Professor of Entrepreneurship (Bodo Graduate School of Business, Norway, 2001–present; former Professor of Entrepreneurship at

Nottingham and Stirling Universities Business Schools and Senior Research Fellow at Warwick, 1992–7. Research posts at Imperial College and Cranfield School of Management. Consultancy experience for EIM Business & Policy Research, 2005. Links with OECD, Paris; Higher Education Funding Council for England and Wales; and Scottish Enterprise.

Research interests: habitual entrepreneurs, internationalisation of SMEs, training programme take-up and benefits, technology-based firms and Science Parks.

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I have a PhD in Microbiology and over 10 years executive management experience

in the Life Sciences industry. I am basically a serial entrepreneur and have started three biotechnology firms from the ground up. In each case I was the first employee and a Founder. Aurora Biosciences Corporation was the first, based in San Diego. This became worth £1.6 billion five years after founding. The second was my own management consultancy business called Venture Consultancy Limited (in 2002) which was based in the UK but established international clientele in Europe and North America. The third is Smart Holograms Limited based in Cambridge, UK, which is also a Life Sciences firm. This company is only a few years old and is now worth around £150 million.

Smart was co-founded in 2002 as a spin-out company from Cambridge University to exploit an exciting new technology that enables the development of a new generation of sensors for use in medical devices and the diagnostics sector. The technology comprises novel interactive holograms ‘sensor holograms’ that can be engineered to change wavelength, image, brightness or position in response to a wide range of biological, chemical and physical stimuli. We are primarily focusing on developing innovative glucose sensors for diabetics and other tests for infectious diseases. Undoubtedly, since this a platform technology, it has applications in many other markets such as Life Sciences tools and security and packaging.

I joined Smart Holograms as its first employee and CEO in August 2003. The company currently has 25 employees, a custom-built laboratory and offices in Cambridge, UK, and an office in San Ramon, California. Smart is currently

smart choiceDr Frank Craig (DLMBA 99–02) CEO, Smart Holograms, shares his first-hand experience of entrepreneurshipin the Life Sciences sector.

Frank has a PhD in Microbiology from the University of Glasgow and an MBA from WBS. He has ten years of international, executive management experience in the Life Sciences sector. He is a serial entrepreneur who has founded three firms. He is currently CEO of Smart Holograms Limited – a medical diagnostics firm based in Cambridge (UK). Frank is also a member of the Advisory Board of Warwick Business School.

the author in minute

nexus: summer 06 focus on entrepreneurship

frameworks at WBS which I later used for market analysis and development of a professional Human Resources function at Smart Holograms. A blend of creative, entrepreneurialism tempered with management discipline is optimal for effective company growth.

Studying the MBA by distance learning was great fun. It was interesting to meet people from different industries and see the linking thread of management. The teachers were very professional and the ones I remember who made a lasting impression were usually the humorous ones. I will claim ‘diplomatic immunity’ and refrain from naming them!

WBS has a world-class reputation and regularly produces high quality, peer-reviewed articles and books on entrepreneurship. I also see that it started a venture fund called Warwick Ventures in 2000 to help form spin-out companies from Warwick’s intellectual property and technology base. My perception is that it is being proactive in this area – which is a good thing.

My personal goals are to continue building my career as an international CEO and to develop my business Smart Holograms to its full commercial potential.

I was also delighted to be invited onto the Advisory Board of Warwick Business School recently to add some ‘entrepreneurial spirit’. I aim to enjoy life, encourage my children and continue seeing the world via travel (this time perhaps I can travel the other way round!)

w www.smartholograms.com

growing its annual revenues by over 600 percent and is quadrupling its UK facility size. We are also now aiming to open a Boston-based facility later this year. The firm has raised over £18 million to date and has five Blue Chip partnerships plus a major Government contract. Last year I travelled around the world performing international business development, which was fun.

The biggest challenge for some entrepreneurs is balancing entrepreneurial energy with management discipline. Some start-up firms struggle because they fail to grow from a few person start-up to a managed firm with proper systems and procedures that ensure effective management. I learnt some very useful

The biggest challenge for some entrepreneurs is balancing entrepreneurial energy with management discipline

14 nexus: summer 06 focus on entrepreneurship

the author in minute

I hold first meetings with in excess of 50 SME proprietors every year across a range of industrial sector and scale of activity. Many of these businesses are ‘proprietorial’; as long as they sustain a reasonable earnings stream to provide their owners with a comfortable living there is little perceived change from year to year.

A minority of the businesses I get to see enjoy significant annual growth to sales, net profit and net tangible assets providing a full risk rate of return to their shareholders. I describe these as ‘entrepreneurial’; one of the acid test qualities being would a development capitalist buy into this business?

Many owners of smaller businesses would like to achieve a risk return for their hard work; they identify elements of commercial detail for improvement but appear to be overlooking some of the fundamentals.

Take a couple of examples: An Electrical Contractor and a Civil Contractor both with annual sales around £5 million; but there the similarity ends.

Electrical has an enthusiastic and capable second tier management team with a

entrepreneurship and development financeAndrew Trigg (MBA 82–3), a partner in Thompsons, Chartered Accountants, discusses aspects of entrepreneurship and development finance in the context of providing corporate finance advice to business proprietors.

spread of commercial and financial skills, incentivised with share options. Annual net profits have increased steadily. Contrast this to Engineering, which used to generate around twice the net profit of Electrical, with two shareholders/directors and one very capable second tier manager. The manager had no employment contract or share options before he left for pastures new about 18 months ago. Over the last financial year Engineering has achieved little more than break-even.

I have been invited to advise both sets of shareholders on their exit strategy to achieve a full price on a trade sale. My view is that at best Engineering could face around two years of ‘grooming’ before the shares should be offered for sale.

I am also currently advising on the acquisition of a £40 million p.a. turnover multi-site Retailer. This is one of several target companies identified by me for a management buy-in team headed by Keith Webster (MBA 03–4). The owner of Retailer is a very talented entrepreneur and he believes his dozen or so senior managers are better at their jobs than he would be. One of the benefits of this level of organisation is that it makes the task of raising acquisition finance relatively structured and predictable.

These examples underline the need for adaptability and management support as two of the key elements for companies with entrepreneurial ambitions.

Some texts include the raising of risk finance as one element of entrepreneurship. For the ambitious company shareholder/director I believe that the raising of such finance should be viewed as part of a process rather than an event.

As the development capitalist trawls through all of the usual commercial and financial headings to be found in business plan checklists they are assessing what impacts on the forecasts and consequently their exit return each commercial statement will have.

A development capitalist’s primary objective is to assess whether a business

has the best possible chance of providing them with their risk rate of return, typically with an exit within three to five years. Exit timescales can inevitably be influenced by the exit timing requirement of the funder of the development capitalist, often a pension fund.

A common requirement for a successful funding approach is a management team with a strong track record across a good balance of skills.

One funding example which strikes close to home is T Total an early stage and exciting retail business where I am serving as non-exec Finance Director. Fellow directors include Nick Green, formerly Tesco director of Clubcard, Andrew Villars who was Spirit Group Director of Drink and Penny Mallory, with a specialism in sales promotion and marketing in addition to being a TV presenter and a National Rally Champion.

The first stage Business Angel funding round was challenging to say the least. Having established and traded our first store for some months and recently contracted a major wholesale deal to supply a 450 outlet, non-competing, retailer we are now bracing ourselves to face the funding market again as a prelude to a major store roll-out; starting in Oxford.

Andrew is a Chartered Accountant with specialist experience in advising on a variety of corporate finance cases. He is a member of the ICAEW Finance and Management Faculty, as well as the Corporate Finance Faculty. He served as a director of a City based Development Capital/Corporate Finance company for five years.

His earlier experience involved some years in a senior commercial financial management role with a FTSE 100 retailer and also included six years in the City office of KPMG.

Andrew is a partner in Thompsons, a growing practice in the centre of Bedford with five partners.

E andrew@thompsons.ltd.ukw www.thompsons.ltd.uk

15nexus: summer 06 focus on entrepreneurship

Tony Blair, George Bush and Bill Clinton have all reported the role and

importance of social entrepreneurship. Universities are increasingly offering courses and conducting research on the topic. Social enterprise clubs have appeared across dozens of university campuses, and social entrepreneurship business plan competitions are now commonplace, in both USA and UK business schools. Moreover, the 2005 Net Impact conference hosted by Stanford University – an event for graduate students in business and management studies interested in social entrepreneurship and corporate social responsibility – attracted a record 1600 participants.

But what, you might ask, does the term social entrepreneurship actually mean? And what kinds of people are involved in running social enterprises? Put simply, social entrepreneurs create businesses which have both social and commercial objectives, but where surpluses are primarily reinvested in the enterprise or a social objective rather than distributed to owners. In other words, at the core of social entrepreneurship is the notion of trading for a social purpose, and it requires that social entrepreneurs identify and exploit market opportunities in order to develop products and/or services which allow them to generate ‘entrepreneurial profit’ for a given social project.

Some brief examples will help to illustrate the kinds of organisations that social entrepreneurs build and manage. Greyston Bakery, based in New York, is one of the world’s best known social enterprises. It provides employment for people who have been marginalised from mainstream labour markets, many of whom have been unemployed for long periods. The profits from the bakery are used to subsidise a range of community-focused services including housing, childcare and healthcare in the Yonkers district of New York. w www.greystonbakery.com

Another social enterprise that has been very successful in both commercial and social terms is Greenworks, which earns income by recycling unwanted furniture from corporations and public sector

social entrepreneurshipIn this article Dr Paul Tracey, Lecturer in the Centre for Small & Medium-Sized Enterprises (CSME), gives examples of businesses formed and managed with social as well as commercial objectives and explains the challenges they face.

organisations. Donors ‘benefit from a one stop, hassle-free service enabling them to fulfil their environmental and social responsibilities’, and Greenworks sells the furniture on to schools, charities, community groups and start-up businesses at discounted prices.w www.green-works.co.uk

But social entrepreneurs can also lead businesses which have a more ‘for-profit’ emphasis. For example, Cafédirect is a limited company selling ‘fair trade’ tea and coffee to provide above market prices and good employment conditions for disadvantaged tea and coffee farmers in developing countries. In addition

entrepreneurs (opportunity recognition, the marshalling of resources, and the creation of the new venture) – with the added complexity of defining, building support for, and achieving social outcomes.

I am presently working with Owen Jarvis – a social entrepreneur and formerly Director of Social Franchising at Community Action Network – on a project designed to identify the characteristics of successful social enterprises, and the skills and competencies exhibited by successful social entrepreneurs. By combining our experience and knowledge, we aim to make a substantive contribution to a new and exciting movement.

the author in minute

Paul Tracey was previously Lecturer in Social Enterprise at Judge Business School, Cambridge University. Has also held posts at the School of Geography at Oxford University and the Centre for Entrepreneurship at Newcastle University.

Research Interests: entrepreneurship; regional innovation; social and community entrepreneurship; corporate social responsibility.

to dividends to shareholders, around 8 percent of annual profits are invested in the training and support of farmers in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and Central and South America. w www.cafedirect.co.uk

And yet while these and many more social enterprises have been very successful, plenty of others have struggled to balance meaningful social outcomes with commercial viability. Indeed, a study by William Foster and Jeffrey Bradach published in the Harvard Business Review last year found that only a quarter of USA-based social enterprises were in profit, concluding that ‘despite the hype… few of the ventures actually make money’.

Certainly, it appears that social entrepreneurship is a particularly demanding form of entrepreneurship – social entrepreneurs encounter the same challenges as more traditional

at the core of social entrepreneurship is the notion of trading for a social purpose, and it requires that social entrepreneurs identify and exploit market opportunities in order to develop products and/or services which allow them to generate ‘entrepreneurial profit’ for a given social project

16

Geoff Percy, Chair of the Founders’ Association, details why a development programme is so important to WBS:

‘Whatever sector we are working in, we have to recognise that organisations are more focused, more tenacious and more concerned about future position than ever before. Leading global business and management schools are no exception. Back in early 2004

the Guardian reflected, ‘To get into the premier league [business schools] have to attract the best students and the top academics. They need to offer state-of-the-art buildings, IT, lecture theatres and libraries. The top international academic stars want high salaries [and] dedicated research centres. All this costs money.’

WBS has done a fantastic job in securing its position through excellent management and attracting additional revenue through growth in MBA, executive education, specialist Masters and Undergraduate provision. However, it is accepted among competitor premier league schools that fundraising is crucial to our success. As alumni we all have a part to play – whether pledging £10 a month or considering naming opportunities and associated benefits from £1,000 upwards.

It was at Warwick my ambitions were harnessed and given direction. We all owe a debt of gratitude to Warwick Business School. We don’t feel obliged to be grateful, we simply are. We know that we benefited from a unique learning environment and unrivalled tuition.

To produce global citizens with knowledge and skills contributing to the growth of business and society through life-long learning is one that I am sure our alumni wholeheartedly support. As we look to WBS’ 40th, the year ahead will be about celebrating the success Warwick Business School has achieved thus far, and about how we can help shape its future. All of us need to consider, ‘How can I do my part?’

Geoff Percy (EMBA 85–9), CEO, Accantia. Chair, WBS Founders’ Association

‘I am donating to Warwick Business School to give back for the WBS experience I gained; to ensure the WBS brand continues to grow in the future and to invest in the School so that future ‘talents’ can be moulded in a second-to-none environment.’

Otto Frommelt (MBA 93–4),Managing Director, Volvo Austria GmbH, Austria

‘I am donating to WBS because I am immensely impressed by the way the School has grown. The Development Programme is important to the School because it gives it the latitude to grow at the speed and in the way it wants.

I would encourage Alumni and Friends of WBS to give to the School because we are

building something different, which will not only benefit future generations – but which also is of value to them now.’

Sandy Meadows (BSc Management Sciences 71–4),OID Consultant, Saxonbury Resourcing

‘WBS has a distinct feeling, it is different. It is a dynamic, entrepreneurial, ambitious School which does not know how to rest on its laurels. There is something very special about WBS, which is felt equally by staff, students and alumni. I have invested a lot in WBS because I am passionate about the School’s success. I have spent years trying to recruit the best staff, transferring my knowledge to

my students and helping them achieve their dream jobs, nurturing my younger academic colleagues, talking about my work and about WBS all around the world to promote the WBS brand.’

Lucio Sarno, Professor of Finance & Associate Dean for Research

WBS’ Development BoardLast year the fourth Board of WBS was established, completing the Dean’s vision of four boards, embracing WBS’ alumni and friends’ expertise in maintaining and furthering WBS’ reputation. The Development Board, ‘The Founders’ Association’ oversees WBS’ Annual Fund, Corporate Sponsorship and Alumni Giving Programme, aiding WBS through its fundraising activities. Members of the Founders’ Association represent alumni, faculty, staff and friends of WBS; they are some of the first key donors of the School and have helped to found a development programme, attracting donations to further the School’s vision, mission, brand and reputation.

If you would like further information about giving to Warwick or making a gift, please contact:

Ben Plummer, Head of Development, Office of the Deant +44 (0)24 7652 4188E development.office@wbs.ac.ukw www.wbs.ac.uk/about/development

WBS development programme

the founders’ associationCEO, Accantia (Chair)Managing Director, Volvo Austria GmbH, Austria Director, Development & Alumni Relations, University of Warwick Director, Personal and Career Development, Warwick MBA, WBS Founding Partner, Stanton Marris

Associate Dean, MBA, WBSOID Consultant, Saxonbury Resourcing LtdGroup Finance Director, First Assist Group CFO, MasterleaseHead of Development, WBSProfessor of Finance, WBSChairman, Radisson Edwardian Hotels (Honorary Chair) Managing Director & Head of Industrials for Europe, Investment Banking Division, Deutsche Bank Dean of WBS Head of Alumni Relations, WBS

Geoff PercyOtto FrommeltRon Gray

Elaine Hewens

Andrew JacksonAndy MacLeodJohn McGeeSandy MeadowsSwag MukerjiPeter PhillipsBen PlummerLucio SarnoJasminder Singh

Ben Story

Howard ThomasNathalie Walker

Members of the Founders’ Association include:

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17

The Alumni Board is just like the Board of SMEs or any not-for-profit organisations – giving advice is important but it is also vital to roll your sleeves up and make things happen

2006 has so far been a very exciting year for the Alumni Board at WBS. In May the Board gathered at WBS for an away day where they focused on exactly what it is that WBS is trying to deliver and how the alumni community fits into that strategic vision.

The day began with a discussion with the Dean around the WBS vision – to be a respected thought-leader and innovator among business schools – and its mission – to educate and develop excellent students as global citizens and, in turn, promote new knowledge for the growth of business and society. Professor Thomas was very receptive to comments and suggestions from the fourteen Board members present and will integrate several of the ideas generated into future policy documents.

One of the primary outcomes of the day was a much more in depth understanding by Board members of the full scope of alumni activity and the part they hope to play in being a bridge between

The summer term at Warwick can mean only one thing for students. But aside from exams, each year the WBSS seeks out the very best student talent to join its Executive Committee and play a part in running the largest non-union affiliated society at Warwick. I am pleased to announce that the new Executive Committee has now been fully selected.

WBSS provides a platform for undergraduates (and an increasing number of postgraduates) from WBS and business related degrees to meet and interact with like-minded students. Through sporting and social events through to mentorship schemes, employer events and presentations, WBSS aims to actively enrich the WBS experience.

The WBSS Entrepreneurial Leadership Forum is one of the flagship events in the Society’s calendar. Drawing a variety of charismatic business brains to share their stories with members, it always promises to

alumni strategy

WBS alumni boardWBS centrally and the whole alumni community. For example, the Board is now considering ways in which it can operate to support the existing network of alumni volunteers who run our special interest groups, regional and international networking groups. Similarly, looking internally towards WBS, the Board is considering how it can be more involved with setting the alumni relations strategy and focus for future years.

undergraduate update by Robert Downer, President, Warwick Business School Society (WBSS)

be a memorable day. Memorable nights of course take their shape in the form of WBSS social events. The renowned Business Ball is set to take place at the end of the Autumn term 2006 and the Executive Committee is pleased to welcome back Jo Jackson; the brains behind the 2004 Business Ball to head up the Social Committee. The Society has the continued support of its sponsors and corporate partners, and is already hard at work tailoring employer events to best meet the needs of members.

17

The Alumni Board is one of four advisory boards working with WBS to help develop strategy and implement ideas. However, as Henri Winand, Chair of the Alumni Board, points out:

If you would like to get involved with the Alumni Board please visit www.wbs.ac.uk/alumni for further details

get involved

WBSS has gone from strength to strength over the past two years and 2006–07 will be no exception. If you would like to get involved with the Society through sponsorship or participation in the 2007 Forum, please get in touch.

e robert.downer@wbss.ac.uk w www.wbss.co.uk

18

Warwick MBA students, alumni and staff assisted at the Moscow World MBA Tour on 13 March, where the WBS stand proved very popular.

Earlier this year the University of Warwick hosted a postgraduate event in Nairobi, Kenya with the help of two WBS alumni – Alistair Brandon-Jones and Anand Savani. While on secondment to the University’s East Africa Office, Ann Jackson, WBS Marketing & International Relations Officer, organised a postgraduate event at the Serena Hotel. The event was attended by approximately 85 students interested in learning about Warwick’s postgraduate degree courses.

alumni group volunteersOur most successful alumni groups are led by enthusiastic volunteers who shoulder the ideas and realisation of group activity. Feedback from our key volunteers has indicated that they would like more support and ready access to other volunteers.

In response, we have developed some additional resources: the alumni web site now represents more fully the group activities organised by alumni; information about groups and contacts are now available online, together with a quick guide to setting up new groups. Recognising that our key coordinators would like to talk to each other, we have set up an online Forum so you can exchange experiences, compare notes and contribute new ideas. We are also developing a volunteer manual – available online in autumn 2006.

venture philanthropyAre you interested in volunteering your business skills in a new context? The Impetus Trust, founded by two leading players from the venture capital and consulting world, is a venture philanthropy organisation that brings professional expertise into charities facing critical changes either because they are poised for rapid growth, they need a turn around in performance or they are preparing for a merger. Impetus uses the venture capital model to support charities

Nairobi

MoscowAlistair Brandon-Jones (BSc Management Sciences 97–00, PhD 2002–) who has just completed his PhD on ‘E-procurement quality from a user perspective,’ is currently a Teaching Fellow in the Operations Management Group at WBS. At the event Alistair made a presentation to a captivated audience on ‘Service Excellence in Operations.’

Anand Savani (BSc Accounting & Financial Analysis 92–5) and a current MBA by distance learning student, attended the event and talked to potential students about studying at Warwick. Anand, who is the Managing Director of Sanyo Armco, Nairobi, regularly assists the School at such events.

[l to r] Svetlana Karpova (current Executive MBA student), Marketing Director, Olympus Moscow LLC; Michael Sutcliffe (MBA 94–5), Business Development Manager, Expro North Sea Ltd; Pat Hodges, MBA External Relations Manager, WBS and Yuri Krassin, Head, Risk Control department, JSC Moscow Mortgage Agency

volunteers in action

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Many of our alumni generously coordinate and assist at WBS events

and recruitment fairs around the world. We are tremendously grateful to you all for your time and support. Here are just two examples of recent events where the collaboration of alumni and current students proved a winning combination.

special interest groupsTwo of our SIGs are doing particularly well: the Brand Management blog, championed by Mike Bastin (MBA 91–2) went live in spring 2006 and has become a virtual space where a lively exchange of brand management related issues takes place.

The Public & Voluntary Sector network, led by David Allan (MPA 00–4) has organised a successful programme of events for 2006 including a day seminar involving contributions from WBS faculty and alumni held on Saturday 17 June on Beyond the Mixed Economy: Reconciling tensions between public & private and central and local. From autumn 2006 the group aims to build on the success of WBS’ Institute of Governance and Public Management lecture series and run alumni related events in parallel.

Our thanks go to Mike and David for their hard work and enthusiasm in championing the groups.

new SIG: entrepreneurshipDLMBA participant Manny Gill has set up an Entrepreneurship SIG for his current DLMBA cohort. The group has over 100 members, communicates via a web forum and has held a successful face to face networking event. Manny and the WBS Alumni Association would like to extend the membership of the group to include WBS alumni. Suggested activities include: face to face networking with guest speakers and speed networking, sharing experiences, regular communication via an online Forum and involvement with Venture Capitalists.

If you are interested in joining this group please contact Caroline Hughes.

through their step change. Following a successful project carried out by Natasha Higman (MBA 02–3) who worked with the Eating Disorders Association, Impetus Trust are looking to make links with other WBS graduates who might like to get involved. If you would like to learn more, please contact e nathalie.walker@wbs.ac.uk or e amelia@impetus.org.uk

The Alumni Office is recruiting for alumni volunteers to take on the management of our other alumni SIGs: Banking & Finance and Consultancy, so that more activities may be undertaken. Our Telecoms group coordinator, Charles Stubbs (DLMBA 87–91) would also like volunteers to assist with the running of the group.

If you are keen to be involved in any of our groups please contact Caroline Hughes: E caroline.hughes@wbs.ac.uk For further information on alumni group activities, see w www.wbs.ac.uk/alumni/networking_groups.cfm

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overseas event reviews

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China

An event held in Shanghai in December attracted alumni from the MBA and other disciplines, not only from Shanghai and mainland China, but also from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Holland and the UK. With the continued support of the WBS alumni office and the local University of Warwick office, organiser Kevin (Ma) Muyuan (MBA 00–1) plans to offer regular events in the future – we will keep you informed. Thanks to Kevin for coordinating this event.

Belgium

Stuart Chambers, Principal Teaching Fellow, Operations Management, hosted a dinner for alumni in Belgium on 31 March at the Four Points Hotel, Brussels. The event was pronounced an all round success, with good food and excellent company. The topics of conversation ranged widely and did not centre solely on WBS.

Sweden

John McGee, Professor of Strategic Management and Associate Dean, The Warwick MBA, represented WBS at the Swedish Business Schools Alumni Association on 15 March, talking about his research relating to telecoms.

The evening was a huge success with over 100 people attending. A strong contingent of Warwick alumni were there, with the rest of the participants from other institutions such as Stanford, Harvard, and LBS.

Thanks go to Mischa Du Pont (MBA 03–4) and Magnus Rolf for coordinating this event.

Cyprus

On 22 February at the Cyprus International Conference Centre, Nicosia, alumni of Warwick Business School and the University joined Dr Sue Bridgewater, Lecturer in Marketing and Strategic Management, for a presentation on her research entitled, ‘What can we learn from Sports Brands? Football brands and the implications for sports and beyond.’

This well attended session reflected on areas in which sports brands, and football brands in particular, involve leading edge marketing strategies – for example in tribal marketing, brand experiences and marketing of personalities/celebrities.

Alumna Leda Stylianou (MSc MSOR 86–9) commented: ‘I thought Sue’s lecture was excellent – very interesting and informative.’

Germany

Dean of WBS, Howard Thomas and Ben Plummer, Head of Development, much enjoyed meeting Warwick alumni for dinner in Munich on 4 January. Ben was also pleased to meet with alumni in Frankfurt on 7 January.

On 9 March, The British Council invited alumni in Brazil to Rio, to hear a presentation on The Challenges of Sports Marketing, by Leonardo Gryner, Marketing Director for the Brazilian Olympic Committee (COB). Leonardo discussed a range of topics relating to how to prepare marketing strategies and presented the case of the Rio Pan American Games 2007. Thanks to Michelle Sartorio (MBA 99–00) for assisting in the coordination of this event.

Brazil

Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong

In March Nathalie Walker, Head of Alumni Relations, and Ben Plummer, Head of Development, received a very warm welcome from alumni in Asia. During a two week period Ben and Nathalie met with over one hundred alumni in Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong. The two Britons enjoyed sumptuous Asian cuisine as they were treated to traditional Chinese style banquets in Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur. In Singapore, however, the culinary focus was clearly on time spent at WBS with fish and chips proving to be the most popular choice on the menu!

The purpose of the trip was to learn more about what it is like to be a WBS graduate based far away, and to learn how WBS can better serve its whole alumni community irrespective of distance or time since departure. We also hoped to bring alumni up to date on the developments at WBS and the University of Warwick since they studied.

It is our intention to ensure that these gatherings remain a regular and active part of WBS activity and will incorporate many of the suggestions made during our trip into future plans. A tremendous thank you must go to all the volunteers who helped us to arrange venues and events, and once again to everyone who attended the events or took time to meet with us individually.

To find out what is happening in your country, group coordinators’ contact details are online at:W www.wbs.ac.uk/alumni/groups-abroad.cfm

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UK event reviews

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something specialThere’s something special about Saturdays. After the pressure of the week, it’s for many of us a day which offers precious time for ourselves, our families, our leisure interests. So, to spend a Saturday confined to the lecture theatre might seem odd.

But those 150 alumni and guests who came to Warwick on 25 February were treated to thought provoking presentations from WBS academics Zoe Radnor, Stuart Chambers, Bob Johnston, and Lyndon Simkin. They gave us fascinating insights into themes including lean principles, continuous service improvement, service excellence and strategic client relationships.

All of them offered ideas to challenge and refresh our thinking – all the more enjoyable because we could see them with the benefit of a few more years’ experience.

Around the regions

fourth annual dinnerEven the weather rose to the occasion, when, on a gorgeous evening in May, WBS alumni, invited guests, staff, faculty and current students arrived in their finery at the Inner Temple Hall in London for the Fourth WBS Annual Dinner.

A quick stroll around the gardens was the first choice for some, before the champagne reception in the grand Luncheon Room. Dinner followed in the cool, elegant Inner Temple Hall which provided a welcome respite from the hot evening air. After dinner Howard Thomas, the Dean of WBS and John Baldwin, the Registrar of of the University of Warwick, both made a short speech highlighting yet another successful year for the School and the University as a whole. The Dean then presented Warwick alumna Val Gooding with a distinguished service award in recognition of her work as Chair of the WBS Advisory Board. Alumnus Geoff Percy (EMBA 85–9), CEO of Accantia, gave a witty and thought-provoking after dinner speech to round off the evening.

Commenting on the event, Nick Jessett (EMBA 85–9) WBS Alumni Board member, said: ‘This was my first experience of a WBS Annual Dinner. I found it was an excellent opportunity to develop existing and new networks over a relaxed meal in prestigious surroundings!’

The four sessions, an hour each, were punctuated by plenty of opportunity to talk over the topics raised, to make new contacts and renew old acquaintances. Lunch provided as always, a varied range of ‘top nosh’. Not by any means a typical Saturday, but the WBS Academic Update provided entertainment, enjoyment, and information in equal measure. Definitely a special day – when’s the next?

Reviewed by Stephen Ward (EXMBA 00–4) who runs his own management consultancy business.

Scott Bowie (DLMBA 93–00) hosted a get-together for WBS and University alumni in South West England in March in Bristol, at which a select group met up at the Mud Dock bar, for an evening of reminiscences. Richard Hill (MSc Marketing Management 77–8) hosted the networking evening on 6 June at the Green Park Brasserie & Bar in Bath. E alumni@wbs.ac.uk

MBA projects evening Another well supported projects evening was held at WBS Scarman Road in February, when members of the WBS alumni community met full-time MBA students to discuss the opportunity of hosting a student within their organisation. This arrangement benefits host companies with high quality work, supervised by a senior member of our academic staff and at the same time supports WBS and our students.To find out more about sponsoring an MBA student contact e alumni@wbs.ac.uk

Scotland

Following on from the success of the gathering at All Bar One in December; Angus Turner (MBA 99–00) is still working hard to bring together graduates from the University of Warwick, recently holding another event in April at the Cafe Royal Circle Bar, Edinburgh. The next gathering will take place on 21 September when Angus looks forward to welcoming both familiar and new faces. E angusturner99@hotmail.com

London First Friday

The February First Friday event held at Match was a huge success with a healthy turnout and as usual, well organised and hosted by Kevin Engelbretson (MBA 99–00). In April Anil Sharma (MBA 02–3) took over the reins and hosted another hugely successful event, again at Match where over 20 alumni enjoyed the excellent atmosphere. In June a good time was had by all at an informal gathering at The Warwick where host Tom Clarke’s (MBA 02–3) negotiation skills ensured everyone’s first drink was on the house.E alumni@wbs.ac.uk

North West

Organiser Rob McCulloch is working hard to ensure the success of the North West events, looking at the different types of gathering alumni are interested in, ranging from informal drinks through to lunchtime tours of The Lowry. New faces are a regular occurrence at the North West events, so if you fancy coming along, you will be sure of a warm welcome.E rmcculloch@terasys.co.uk

South West

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UK event reviews

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The Warwick event consists of an afternoon of presentations from prominent members of staff from across the years and an evening with dinner and disco to enjoy with us at The University of Warwick, reminiscent of the Course Dinner at September Seminar of which many Distance Learning graduates will have fond memories.

In addition to being a great way to celebrate this anniversary, the events will be an opportunity for a reunion of DLMBA graduates and staff and for networking with old and new acquaintances.

Join the DLMBA 20th Anniversary celebrations

Saturday 30 September 2006

A Celebration at Warwick Business SchoolAfternoon events followed by a Dinner-Dance in the Chancellor’s Suite.£49.00 per person if booked before 31 August£65.00 per person if booked after 31 August

For further details and to book, seew www.wbs.ac.uk/alumni

Saturday 25 November 2006

A Celebration in Hong Kong hosted by

Howard Thomas, Dean of WBS

(Details and price of event to be confirmed via the website below)

For further details and to register your interest, please contact e alumni@wbs.ac.uk

As part of the 20th Anniversary celebrations, Howard Thomas, Dean of WBS, will also be hosting a special event in Hong Kong on 25 November 2006.

The DLMBA started in 1986 and the first group of students graduated in 1989. Now, over 2500 people have graduated from the programme and there are currently over 1800 active students in over 90 countries across the globe. We will be producing a booklet giving the full history of the programme, which will be on sale.

The Distance Learning variant of the Warwick MBA (DLMBA) celebrates its twentieth birthday this year and DLMBA alumni, with their guests, are invited to a special commemorative event.

Growing in popularity, the Oxford Group meets regularly at the Lamb and Flag, followed by dinner at a local restaurant. The February event was well attended, with dinner at Jamal’s Indian Restaurant where conversation flowed and a good time was had by all. Another enjoyable event took place in May. The group meets four times a year so if good food and good company is your scene then get in touch with organiser Alex Clark. E alexanderdnclark@hotmail.com

The Midlands group held a highly successful evening on Business Turnaround at PricewaterhouseCoopers, Birmingham, in March, with presentations by Mark Taylor of Bluesky Associates, on the role of the Turnaround Director and Richard Farr, a partner of PwC, on the role of the Business Adviser. The feedback received was very positive. Thank you to organiser David Sykes (MBA 86–7), a WBS Alumni Board member.

A visit to Warwick Castle for an outdoor performance of The Taming of the Shrew is scheduled in July.

E james.rock@virgin.net

We are very keen to increase attend-ance numbers at our regional events, so if you have any suggestions do let us know at E alumni@wbs.ac.uk

Around the regions

Midlands group Oxford

Richard Farr and Mark Taylor

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alumni news

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first DLMBAReading the spring 06 article on the 20th anniversary of the DLMBA, alumnus Guy Fraser-Sampson (DLMBA 85–9) recognised himself on the 1989 graduation photograph with a certain amount of shock! Since graduating, he has pursued a career in finance and investment, with a specialist interest in private equity. This included a spell living and working in the Middle East as Investment Controller with the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, a period

running his own business in Paris, and then several years setting up and running (from London) the European operations of a leading USA fund of funds manager.

Guy has written extensively for investment and pensions pub-lications, particularly on investment strategy and asset allocation. The publicity preceding the launch of his book Multi-Asset Class Investment Strategy (Hot off the Press P5) attracted considerable attention, and Guy has been asked to give keynote addresses to conferences on MAC Investing both in the UK and abroad, including a series of seminars in Amsterdam for Dutch pension funds. He has also been asked to write, or co-author, a follow-up series of four or five books on different aspects of MAC Investing.

wedding bells Belated congratulations to Claire Hurst (née Hollingsworth) and Chris Hurst, who met at WBS on the MA Industrial Relations in 1998 and got married at Stoneleigh Abbey in Kenilworth in September 2005. There were several former Warwick students among the guests, including Paul and Imogen Hurst (Chris’s brother and his wife who also met at Warwick!), Phil Vogelsang, Denise Ellitson, Eric Folliot, Ben Moss, Phil Johnson, Steve Buchanan and Kieran Humphries.

new presidentWBS alumna Caroline Gardner (DLMBA 89–95), deputy auditor-general at Audit Scotland, becomes the new president of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA). Caroline has been deputy auditor-general since 2000 and was also appointed controller of audit by Scottish Ministers in 2004.

Commenting on her appointment, Caroline said: ‘I'm delighted to be taking on the role of CIPFA president. CIPFA is one of the leading professional accountancy bodies in the UK and the only one which specialises in the public services. The MBA and the CIPFA qualification have been a powerful combination for me, developing the skills needed to contribute to improving public services and making sure they're well managed.’

There are close links between CIPFA and Warwick Business School; we run a unique joint programme to provide a fast track to chartered accountancy status in less than two years. I'm looking forward to building on those foundations so that other public service managers have the same opportunities in future.’

ambassadorial appointment Karl Xuereb (MBA 97–8) has been appointed Malta's Ambassador to the People's Republic of China. Until recently Karl was the managing director of Creditinfo Malta, which he established. Earlier he served at the Bank of Valletta Group as assistant general manager and head of strategic planning. He then joined Mid-Med Bank as director of European business.

the right choiceAn article profiling alumnus Hubert Malivoir (DLMBA 98–03) appeared in French management magazine, Le Journal du Management in April. In the article Henri explains how the complete flexibility of the Warwick DLMBA influenced his choice when he was spending 70 percent of his time travelling.

He began his studies when based in Singapore and continued when he moved back to France, working for Exxon Mobil and subsequently Nestlé, using frequent long haul flights to catch up with his course reading.

Henri adds, ‘Another major advantage of e-learning compared to a full-time MBA was the ability to immediately apply what we learnt within our professional context.’

high profileThomas Sparrvik (DLMBA 95–00) President and CEO of Kontron America, was profiled in a special report on Business Education in the Financial Times on 20 March, in an article headed 'I'm not afraid of anything in business.’ Thomas left his native Sweden six years ago to run Kontron Mobile Computing, a small Minnesota-based computer company that had recorded 10 straight years of losses.

One year later, the company reported a $2.2m operating profit. Today, Thomas is president and chief executive officer of Kontron America, the San Diego-based maker of embedded computers for various industries including military, aerospace, transportation and medical fields. The $180m company has more than 500 employees and comprises German-based Kontron's five USA entities, including Kontron Mobile Computing. The article concludes with this quote from Thomas, 'Getting my MBA was one of the best things I've done in my career, I would probably not be a CEO in America [had I not done the course].'

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contact details

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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 Cresswell and Faith PlevinEvents Coordinatorst +44 (0)24 7657 3967T +44 (0)24 7615 0171e sue.cresswell@wbs.ac.ukE faith.plevin@wbs.ac.uk

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

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

Tracy LynchAlumni and Development Office ManagerT + 44 (0)24 7657 5835E tracy.lynch@wbs.ac.uk

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

In-house photography byJohn Weatherly 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

alumni news

interesting subjectAndrea Orlandi (MBA 04–5), Manager – Global Incentives Advisor Dept, Ernst & Young , Luxembourg, graduated in January 2006. As a result of his MBA project on Microfinance, supervised by Prof. David Storey, he has recently presented to a meeting of the Luxembourg Ministry of Economy for the development of Entrepreneurship Spirit. His project has also attracted the interest of the Grand

Duchess of Luxembourg, who would like to establish a Microfinance Institution. This led to an invitation to present his conclusions to the board of her family's foundation. Maria Novak, president of Adie, one of the largest European Microfinance institutions and president of the European Microfinance Network was also present.

appointmentsOscar Acuna (MBA 91–2) received promotion to Section Head of Europe at the Division for Europe, Department of Technical Cooperation of the Inter-national Atomic Energy Agency.

Jo Dawson (MBA 91–2) formerly HBOS group risk director, has been promoted to chief executive of its insurance and investment division. Jo takes over a division that contributes about 12 percent to the bank's total group businesses including Clerical Medical, Halifax Financial Services, esure, and Bank of Scotland Investment Service.

friends reunited Rob Greenwood (PhD 88–91) and David Twigg (PhD 91–5) met for the first time in 14 years at Signal Hill, St. John's Newfoundland, Canada. David was travelling through this part of Canada in September 2005 and liaised with Rob via email to coordinate this whistle-stop visit. Rob is now Director of The Leslie Harris Centre of Regional Policy and Development, Memorial University of Newfoundland. David is Director of Undergraduate Studies at Science and Technology Policy Research, University of Sussex. Sadly the third member of the original WBS trio of friends, Carlos Hemais (PhD 88–92), passed away in October 2005. Carlos was one of the founding members of the WBS Doctoral Students Association and was its second president.

Aidan’s adventureAidan Applegarth (MBA 2001–2) took part in the second leg of the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race 05–06 crossing the South Atlantic from Salvador (Brazil)

to Durban (South Africa) aboard Qingdao Clipper, covering some 4,300 miles in 22 days and rounding the infamous Cape of Good Hope. A sponsored blast-up-the-mast – all 90 feet of it – raised £1,133 for Alzheimer’s charity SPECAL in memory of his father, contributed in part by former MBA colleagues. Aidan adds: ‘I’ve also recently created CompanyWise – Business Advisers and Management Consultants linking up with my twin brother. W www.companywise.co.uk

MPA to PhDOlga Arsenova (MPA 03–5) writes: ‘In 2004 I won the Overseas Research Scholarship (ORS) and started a PhD degree in economic geography at Birmingham University. My thesis is exploring the extent of the diversification in the supply chain of low niche automotive manufacturers in the West Midlands.

‘I firmly believe the MPA programme at WBS helped me to win the ORS scholarship and effectively built and strengthened my academic and research potential. My recent article exploring the question of how economic geography could be relevant for public policies has been published in the Cambridge Contour Postgraduate Journal’w www.gg.rhul.ac.uk/postgrads/Contour.pdf

Wei Dong (FMBA 03–4) was promoted to deputy general manager of the China National Pulp and Paper Corporation after graduation and has subsequently been promoted again to general manager.

Julia Evans (EXMBA 95–00), has been appointed CE of the National Federation of Builders, previously Director of Strategic Rail Authority.

Ian Ferrao and Alex Simuyandi (BSc ManSci 01–4) have relocated to Lusaka, Zambia, to take over commercial directorship of AfriConnect (Zambia).

AfriConnect is the pioneer of wireless broadband in the country, and one of the fastest growing ISPs.

Daniel Goodwin (MPA 01–4) became St Albans District Council’s new chief executive in February. Formerly corporate services director at Wealden District Council in East Sussex, Daniel was previously at Peterborough City Council and has also worked for the Audit Commission.

The next issue of nexus is due out in January 2007 and will focus on our global community.

If you would like to contribute to nexus then do get in touch with me by email. E pam.barnes@wbs.ac.uk

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

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�����������������������h Online directory of alumni h Access to Harvard Business Review h Calendar of forthcoming events h Latest school and alumni news h Volunteer alumni mentors h Career resources and vacancies h Networking opportunities

visit us at www.wbs.ac.uk/alumni or call us on +44 (0)24 7652 2813

To login to view the directory or to access library information you will need your alumni number. This is your old student number and is printed on the address

and update sheet enclosed with your magazine. Alternatively you can contact the Alumni Association, alumni@wbs.ac.uk, who will supply it to you.