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Warwick Business School Alumni Association magazine: summer 07

40th anniversary edition

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Friday 20 – Saturday 21 July 2007WBS & the Lakeside Marquee

Under 18sJoin us for the 1960s themed Summer Ball on Friday 20 July. Open to all this promises to be an evening of fine dining, charming company, dancing and more.

If you would like to arrange a reunion of classmates or colleagues from WBS please let us know and we will be happy to help.

Friday 20 July – WBS Summer Ball 1967–2007Discounted overnight accommodation is available at Radcliffe House subject to availability. Booking fee applies.

To book, or for further detailsw www.wbs.ac.uk/alumnit +44 (0)24 7652 2813 e alumni@wbs.ac.uk

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Morning session Sustainability – from global to localProfessor Nigel ThriftVice-Chancellor, The University of Warwick

Dr Ian PearsonMinister for Climate Change and the Environment, PhD Industrial and Business Studies 1983–8

Nick HillardEnvironment Officer, The University of Warwick

Professor Peter MillsWarwick Horticulture Research International,The University of Warwick

Afternoon sessionSustainability – the practitioner debateDr Henri WinandCEO, Intelligent Energy, MBA 1999–03

Dr Catherine MitchellPrincipal Research Fellow, Centre for Management under Regulation, The University of Warwick

Julia EvansCEO, National Federation of Builders, MBA 1995–00

Leigh ChadwickCo-owner, Seasalt Cornwall, BSc Accounting & Financial Analysis 1975–8

Formal opening of £9 million WBS buildingVal GoodingCEO BUPA (BA French Studies 1968–71)

To mark the completion of our most recent building development and to formally open the new facilities, we are delighted to be joined by Warwick alumna, Val Gooding.

Garden party lunch Why not catch up with classmates, or take a guided tour of the WBS facilities and the University of Warwick campus?

You can also meet the Dean, enjoy live music, delicious cuisine and children’s entertainers in the marquee.

Saturday 21 July – Academic Update

Children’s activities and creche facilities are available throughout the weekend.

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celebrating

401967 – 2007

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With our 40th anniversary celebrations well underway the major challenge facing WBS is how to ensure that we really are the leading business school in Europe within the next five years. This is no small challenge, but it is the part that we play in the University of Warwick’s ambitious plans for the future. Professor Nigel Thrift, the

Vice–Chancellor of the University of Warwick since July 2006, is wholly supportive of our objective.

As we all know, statistics can be manipulated, but by most metrics WBS is already exceptionally good. This 40th anniversary issue of nexus looks at some of the people who have helped us become what we are today and the diverse nature of our community which ensures not only educational excellence but also an environment that creates global citizens and people who have a real impact on the world around them.

Our research agenda remains a high priority as we approach the Research Assessment Exercise deadline (Professor David Storey explains more on P4). Another priority is

message from the dean

to complete the final phase of the WBS Scarman Road Building (or ‘the white building on the corner by the roundabout’ as some people call it!) We are investigating funding options for this, but my thanks go to alumni and friends who have already generously contributed to this project, and indeed other aspects of WBS. Through these aims we also plan to raise our international profile and ensure the WBS brand is recognised world–wide. Gill Thewlis, Chair of the Alumni Board, explains how you can get involved in supporting this on P19.

I hope that you will join me here at WBS on 20/21 July for our Summer Ball and Open Day, or attend one of our global dinners on 15 November to share your passion for WBS. These focal points in our anniversary calendar aim to bring together as many of the WBS community as possible (details can be found on P23). If you cannot join us in person at these or any of our other events I hope you will enjoy the podcasts and videos of events available on our web site.

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contents

WBS newslooking backProfessor Robert Dyson40 years onKeith Bedell–Pearcefrom MBA to MBEJenny Hockingin credit in KenyaJohn Kariuki40 years of WBStop textProfessors Nigel Slack and Bob Johnston, Stuart Chamberstrust in successLouise ShepherdWBS alumni boardWBS in 2007Mårten Abrahamsen, Kunal Jhanji, Dustie Houchin, Hazel HuangWBS development programmeWBS global communityevent reviews, SIGs and regional groupsalumni news

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Front cover: WBS in the ‘80s. WBS staff and faculty are joined by colleagues from the central University for a publicity shot. Some of you may recognise Jenny Hocking, Roy Johnston, Thom Watson and Robert Dyson.

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4 research reviewnexus: summer 07

Professor David Storey, Associate Dean Research & Director of the Centre for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises, explains the significance

of a league table highly renowned in academic circles.

We are all familiar with league tables. What started off as being of interest only to sports

fans is now found in so many areas of public life and universities are no exception.

The Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) is designed to be a mechanism in which the quality of research is assessed and then used as the basis for distributing government money for research. Broadly those doing the ‘best’ research will expect to obtain the lion’s share of funds which, when you consider the recent settlement to universities is close to £7 billion per year, is pretty important.

As far as WBS is concerned, we obtained a ranking of 5* in the �00� RAE, which was the highest possible ranking alongside London Business School and Lancaster Business School. We have therefore been a major funding beneficiary during the last six years.

The next RAE will include material – most notably publications – up to and including �007. The results are expected to be published in December �008.Whilst expectations are high, and we have expanded in terms of the quality and quantity of the research we produce, we have a less clear idea of how our competitors have fared during this period.

In addition, the ‘rules of the game’ have changed significantly since �00� and we are told that in �007 much greater emphasis will be placed upon applied and practically relevant research than was the case in the past. Of course, we feel that this places WBS in an extremely strong position since we have always prided ourselves on our scholarly interaction with the business and government communities. Nevertheless, we will not know the answer until December �008.

David Storey

A major research report about managing with political awareness, based on a national survey and interviews of managers in the private, public and voluntary sectors,

was launched at the House of Lords on 12 June. The report uses the latest research findings on how to better develop leaders with the capability to manage the political dimension of their businesses and services

The Chartered Management Institute, the professional body for UK managers, commissioned the work from the Institute of Governance and Public Management (IGPM) at WBS. The research team is led by Professor Jean Hartley and also includes Professor Clive Fletcher, recently appointed as an Honorary Professor at Warwick. The survey attracted 1,459 responses to questions about the situations in which political skills are used, the nature of those political skills, and also how political awareness skills are acquired.

Jean Hartley

Professor Lucio Sarno of WBS, Luciana Juvenal of Warwick University and Marcel Fratzscher of the European Central Bank, have recently published research that shows falls in

US asset prices such as housing and equities have a substantially more important role for reducing US trade imbalances than changes in the US dollar exchange rate. Their paper Asset Prices, Exchange Rates and the Current Account, presented in April at the Royal Economic Society Conference at the University of Warwick, looked at the relationship between asset prices, exchange rates and the trade balance in the US over the period 1974–2005.

They found that equity market shocks and housing price shocks had by far the greatest effect on reducing the US trade imbalance accounting for up to 35 percent of the movements of the US trade balance. By contrast, shocks to the real exchange rate of the US dollar explained less than five percent of such movements and exerted only a temporary effect on the US trade balance.

WBS Researcher Professor Lucio Sarno said, ‘Our findings suggest that a sizeable real depreciation of the US dollar may not be an inevitability for an adjustment of today’s large current account imbalances, and that other factors, in particular global asset price changes, could be an equally or even more potent source of adjustment.’

Lucio Sarno

To date there has been too little conceptual and practical understanding of political skills in and around the workplace. Managers are increasingly required to operate in a complex and media–visible world. Day–to–day business activities may have many ramifications for a diverse set of stakeholders. To succeed in a complex environment, managers must consider the political dimension of their business. However, many still view political skills narrowly in terms of self–interest rather than the skills needed to be able to map the political terrain and build coalitions and partnerships.

The potential benefits of political skills raise new challenges for the selection, review, training and development of individual managers and leaders, and for the balance of skills required to get the most out of teams, partnerships and alliances. This new research highlights the need for much greater recognition of the vital contribution that effective political leadership can make to delivering business results.

Nearly ten years ago the Trades Union Congress (TUC) launched an innovative training programme in an effort to broaden the focus of UK trade unionism in order

to represent a wider group of workers. The Organising Academy has since trained over 200 organisers whose job it is to recruit new workers, to develop relationships between unions and employers which have not previously had formal union representation in their workplaces, and to try to broaden the appeal of unions to workers who have not traditionally been well represented.

Research by Dr Melanie Simms, Associate Professor of Industrial Relations, and Dr Jane Holgate (Working Lives Research Institute) funded by the Nuffield Foundation, has traced almost all of the organisers who have graduated from the Organising Academy and is evaluating what they have been doing since their training. Surprisingly, around nine percent are still actively involved in the trade union movement; with many of the rest involved in other political organisations, and one is even a Member of Parliament. The vast majority use their training in their day–to–day roles and evaluated their experiences as being generally positive. More widely, they talk about companies and workplaces where workers now have collective representation rights – small steps, but valuable ones.

Melanie Simms

5research review nexus: summer 07

On 30 March Prime Minister Tony Blair gave one of his series of lectures on the theme of Our Nation’s Future about the biggest challenges facing the UK. In this lecture, given at Manchester, the Prime Minister focused on the changing nature of work, the ways in which the UK economy has evolved since Labour took office a decade ago and the role of work in the modern world.

An article by the WBS Industrial Relations Research Unit’s Professor Linda Dickens

Linda Dickens and Mark Hall

The Technological Innovations Research Unit (TIRU) located in the Marketing and Strategic Management group is to participate in an EU funded research project entitled EU Food Industry Dynamics and Methodological Advances (FOODIMA) as part of the Sixth Framework research programme. The project

Paul Stoneman, Duncan Angwin and Zafeira Kastrinaki

aims are to analyse the EU food chain, providing a descriptive and systematic assessment of the current situation and performance, examine sector evolution and potential, as well as the interactions with, and the impact on, the primary agricultural sector.

The research consortium set up for this project includes seven institutions from throughout the EU: one from eastern Europe, four from northern Europe (including WBS) and two from southern Europe. The research team thus involves countries with different backgrounds, structures and dynamics in their respective national food industries. Consortium

partners bring different areas of expertise which ensures that through their collaboration and complementary skills, the entire spectrum of the food industry will be addressed.

The TIRU contribution will be an analysis of strategic interactions in and competitiveness of the EU food supply chain provided by a descriptive and systematic assessment of merger and acquisition (M&A) activity in the industry. The research team involved in the project includes Paul Stoneman, Research Professor, Director of the Doctoral Programme, Dr Duncan Angwin, Associate Professor of Strategic Management and Zafeira Kastrinaki, Research Fellow.

and Principle Research Fellow Mark Hall, assessing the impact of New Labour’s employment legislation, was among submissions by opinion–formers considered by the PM when writing this lecture. Entitled Fairness – up to a point, the paper was published in Human Resource Management Journal in autumn 2006. It is based on their review of research into the impact of employment legislation since 1997, carried out for the Department of Trade and Industry. The article provides an overview of the main research findings and identifies factors affecting legislative impact and employer compliance. Dickens and Hall argue that New Labour’s willingness to promote social justice, fairness and security has been contingent on the extent that it can be argued to promote and support business interests and to underpin economic efficiency.w www.pm.gov.uk/output/Page11378.asp

Recent research indicates that plagiarism is a complex and increasing problem within higher educational institutions and suggests that academia is

struggling to adequately address this erosion of academic integrity. Most research focuses on the detection aspects of plagiarism – mainly using software packages – with significantly less work being undertaken on preventative measures. Such a detection focus, whilst important, may result in students becoming more sophisticated in their approaches to plagiarism in order to side–step software detection.

Funded by the Business Management Accounting and Finance branch of the Higher Education Academy, this research

Louise Gracia

by Dr Louise Gracia, Assistant Professor of Accounting, explores the nature, causes, extent and experiences of academic dishonesty amongst the student body within a particular institutional context.

The work aims to contribute to the emerging debate surrounding the relationship between objective social structures and the subjects who occupy them. Specifically it seeks to explore the impact, if any, of the objective social structure of universities – such as institutional and pedagogic practices and cultures – on subjects’ (students’) cognitive and somatic responses in relation to plagiarism and other forms of academic dishonesty, including collusion.

Such insight will be used to develop understanding of academic dishonesty and make any relevant contribution to academic policy that informs and shapes institutional and pedagogic practices and cultures.

Sleep, or the possible lack or poor quality of it, appears to be an increasingly important issue for business. Longer working hours, combined with the proliferation of around–the–clock

leisure and entertainment facilities, are seemingly turning us into a sleep–deprived society.

A number of publications have emerged suggesting that it is at work where a lack of sleep is most keenly felt. It does not appear, however, that UK businesses are as yet taking the question of sleep seriously. In a recent survey of HR managers across the UK, undertaken by a team of researchers led by Dr Philip Hancock, Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour, findings suggested that not only is there a general absence of company policies relating to sleep and fatigue, but, perhaps more worryingly, there is an equal lack of knowledge about the relationship between healthy sleep patterns, and safe and productive workplaces. Despite these findings, several leading companies were in fact starting to take this issue seriously, pursuing the promotion of healthy sleep practices and, in some instances, the provision of dedicated napping facilities similar to those now found in some US companies.

The team are now hoping to expand their research, considering some of these developments in more depth, as well as exploring the ways in which managers and their employees experience the relationship between sleep and work on a daily, if not indeed nightly basis. If you would like to learn more or would be interested in taking part in the research, please e–mail

Philip Hancock

6 nexus: summer 07 research review

The research paper Born Global or Forced Global? (A Kudina, G Yip and H Barkema) addresses two central questions: when a firm should seek early and rapid internationalisation and how to do it

successfully. It starts with an analysis of why there are ‘born globals’, ie what triggers firms to seek international exposure at early stages of their existence. This leads to suggest a number of factors that drive when going international early is advantageous to the firm’s operations.

These factors include an inadequate home market, presence of foreign or multinational customers and internationally active competitors, significant network effects, internationally experienced management, knowledge intensive or high technology sector, and significant first mover advantages.

Dr Alina Kudina, Assistant Professor, International Business, and her fellow researchers also find that having the most technically advanced offering and acquiring some technology internationally are key to the firm’s competitive advantage and overall performance. In addition, developing successful social and knowledge networks also makes some companies more successful in their internationalisation efforts. Their analysis is based on interviews conducted with top executives in 12 high technology companies located in the area around Britain’s University of Cambridge, a region dubbed ‘Silicon Fen’ because of its business and technology similarities to California’s Silicon Valley.

Alina Kudina

The National Audit Office (2006) report recently evaluated the National Program for IT (NpfIT), which is the largest civil (non–military) IT program worldwide. The basis of the

report suggested that the four large–scale IT projects: National Care Records Service; Choose and Book system; Electronic Transfer of Prescriptions and Picture Archiving Communications Systems, at a cost of over £6.2bn were all delayed, some by over two years.

This proposal provides preliminary research by Dr David Finnegan, Assistant Professor in Information Systems Management, which investigates the deployment of NPfIT, with particular emphasis upon Systems Integration (SI) and its impact on patient care within the UK NHS. It investigates cross–national data from Canada and Sweden to provide a comparative analysis.

The research investigates SI approaches in the UK NHS for patient care. It will capture the perceptions of different stakeholders to determine how their roles both contribute and inhibit the implementation of systems integration technologies.

It will also investigate the knowledge sharing mechanisms in place and their linkages with deployed SI approaches. The focus is on data, information and understanding and knowledge sharing across departmental subcultures and their impacts on the patient care. It also highlights and investigates the concept of ‘customer’ within the NHS context and how it has been perceived by Patient Care Stakeholders.

David Finnegan

Colin Clubb, WBS Professor of Accounting, and colleague Dr Shahed Imam, are conducting research on Valuation models usage by UK investment analysts. The primary users of valuation models are stock market analysts. It is primarily through the study of analysts that researchers can seek to understand the mechanisms whereby accounting and non–accounting information impact equity values in practice. While the perceived importance of valuation models by analysts is well documented, there is limited direct evidence which shows how the models are actually used in practice and little specific evidence on how past and current performance is linked to future performance. They are investigating three questions:

• How are the valuation models used in practice?

• More specifically, how do analysts use past performance to project future performance, ie what is the process by which past performance is linked to future performance?

• How can recent developments in accounting–based valuation models be related to the practice of financial analysts?

It is expected the results will indicate that analysts make greater use of sophisticated valuation models than indicated by previous research but in a context where they apply their own professional judgment and provide a value–added service to investors. It is anticipated this research will have both academic and practical implications.

Colin Clubb Shahed Imam

Dr Kathy Kotiadis, Assistant Professor in the Operational Research and Information Systems group (ORIS), has recently been awarded an Engineering and Physical Sciences

Research Council (EPSRC) grant of £198,000 for a two year project to develop a tool to help healthcare professionals participate in the development of simulation models of their systems. Discrete event simulation modelling has been touted as an ideal tool in assisting decision makers in healthcare as it is able to model the system’s inherent complexity and variability. Although these simulation models can lead to increased

Kathy Kotiadis

efficiency and effectiveness, they require technical expertise that often alienates the healthcare stakeholders from their development.

Kathy explains, ‘ We propose to develop an approach stemming from the problem structuring field of Operational Research that will specifically aim to help health care administrators and clinicians take a more active part in the development of such models. We also expect that playing a more active role will lead them to buy into the process and findings, and to support their implementation. Better and increased levels of communication with the stakeholders will enable both expert and novice modellers to build more relevant discrete simulation models in healthcare.’

The next issue of nexus will focus on WBS alumni in academia and is due out in January 2008.

If you are working in the HE sector and would like to contribute to nexus then do please email mee pam.barnes@wbs.ac.uk

We are pleased to announce that this issue of nexus is printed on 50 percent recycled paper.

7nexus: summer 07hot off the press

Supporting strategy: Frameworks, methods and models, edited by Professor Robert Dyson and Frances

O’Brien, Associate Professor, Operational Research, published by Wiley, develops the concept of the strategic development process. The book spans direction setting, strategy creation, rehearsal, evaluation and choice, leading to a continuous process of adopting strategic initiatives. w tinyurl.com/2jgnac

Private equity as an asset class by alumnus Guy Fraser–Sampson (DLMBA 1985–9) published by Wiley Finance. Starting with such basic questions as ‘what is private equity?’ it takes the reader steadily through increasingly sophisticated

levels of detail until complex modelling of buyout and venture deals and funds can be attempted with confidence.w tinyurl.com/2mebb6

Mergers and Acquisitions by Dr Duncan Angwin, Associate Professor, Strategic Management Group, published by Blackwells Oxford. This highly topical book provides multi–disciplinary perspectives ranging from

finance to psychology, on the subject of mergers and acquisitions. WBS contributors include Glenn Morgan, Simon Collinson, Scott Dacko and Ken Bates.w tinyurl.com/38v3cp

Contesting the Corporation Struggle, Power and Resistance in Organizations co–authored by André Spicer, Associate Professor, IROB group, and Peter Fleming, Judge Business School. Shows today’s corporations are driven by political

struggle, power plays and attempts to resist control. An analysis of the ways in which power operates within the modern workplace. Published by Cambridge University Press. w tinyurl.com/2qffwo

Implementing CRM: From Technology to Knowledge by Dr David Finnegan Assistant Professor, Information Systems Management and Professor Leslie Willcocks, published by John Wiley. Links Customer Relationship

Management (CRM) systems implementation with organisational change for the first time. Focuses on the implementation of CRM and uncovers the micro political, behavioural, psychological and knowledge issues. w tinyurl.com/36vetv

Adaptation or Expiration in Family Firms: Organizational Flexibility in Emerging Economies by alumnus Andrés Hatum (PhD 1998–02) Associate Professor at IAE Business School, Austral University, Buenos

Aires, published by Edward Elgar. Explores determinants of organisational flexibility in this examination of four family–owned companies, two flexible and two less flexible, from the edible oil and pharmaceutical industries. w tinyurl.com/32w4va

5th Edition of Operations Management, by Profs Nigel Slack and Bob Johnston, and Stuart Chambers, OM group, published by FT Prentice Hall. In this market–leading text, the authors bring to life their comprehensive,

practical and strategic view of operations management with over 100 contemporary and international examples of operations in practice, as well as providing critical commentaries on areas of academic contention and professional debate (see article P16/17). w tinyurl.com/3cjf8p

Eat to Beat Fatigue by alumna Jane Harries (PG

Cert Business Administration 1996–2001) published by Erskine Press. A cookbook in aid of Action for ME, the UK charity. This new edition has more recipes from famous cooks and ME sufferers, plus hints and tips on ‘low–energy’ cooking and shopping. Details on the Action for ME web site/Quick Links/Shop. w www.afme.org.uk

The Changing Institutional Face of British Employment Relations, jointly edited by Professor Linda Dickens of WBS and Professor Alan Neal of the School of Law was published by Kluwer Law International in 2006. The Chinese language version is produced by Peking University Press and was launched in January 2007 at a colloquium in Beijing.

Human safety and risk management (2nd edition) by alumnus Associate Professor Ian Glendon (MBA 1987–8), School of Psychology, Griffith University, Queensland, Australia: explores the role of psychology in safety and risk in the workplace and elsewhere. Co–authors: Sharon Clarke & Eugene McKenna, published by CRC Press/Taylor & Francis. w tinyurl.com/2fju3d

8 WBS in the newsnexus: summer 07

WBS rise in latest rankings In the Financial Times Full–time MBA rankings published in January, WBS rose to 36th in the world (up 16 places); 13th in Europe (up 4) and 6th in the UK (up 3).

Dean Howard Thomas affirmed, ‘The results demonstrate that earning an MBA from a top business school like WBS has significant advantages to those managers wanting to fast track their career prospects.

‘This news comes on top of the recent FT Executive MBA rankings which placed WBS 14th in the world (up 3), 5th in Europe (up 2) and 2nd in the UK, which reinforces our reputation for excellence.’

WBS best for job prospectsIn the Business and Management section of the Guardian University Guide published in May, WBS’ undergraduate programme achieved the highest score – ten out of ten for job prospects.

Although overall Warwick achieved second place to Oxford, Oxford only scored better on staff/student ratio. In all other aspects Warwick and Oxford were equal.

Take a WBS taxiPublications ranging from the Financial Times to the local newspaper reported on the ongoing advertising campaign which included two WBS branded taxis at Birmingham and Manchester airports. The taxis were only part of this advertising campaign. Light–boxes at the two airports displayed WBS advertising which was repeated inside the taxis, and the same adverts appeared in in–flight magazines.

‘Traditionally, business schools have simply taken out ads in the business education supplements of the heavyweight daily newspapers and the occasional business magazine,’ says Simon Peatfield, WBS Director of Marketing. The elements of our new campaign will reinforce our message and the wbs.ac.uk website.’

relocation for AIM researchFollowing its award of GBP£7.5 million in support from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), The Advanced Institute of Management Research (AIM) joined WBS in May.

forging linksThe developing link between WBS and Cornell University at Ithaca in New York State, USA, is one example of the School’s increasing and strengthening links with prestigious international institutions.

Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR) and our own Industrial Relations Research Unit have just enjoyed their second exchange visit. Last year, faculty from ILR came to Warwick, and this year it was the turn for Cornell to act as hosts.

WBS welcomes new facultyWe are pleased to announce the recent professorial appointments of Paul du Gay (IROB), Christopher Grey (IROB), Lloyd Harris (MSM), Loizos Heracleous (MSM), Joe Nandhakumar (ISM), and John Purcell (IRRU); and Roger Mumby–Croft (CSME) as Professorial Fellow.

Congratulations go to Simon Collinson (MSM) on his recent promotion to Professor, and to Mark Hall (IRRU) and Jonathan Tritter (IGPM) who become Professorial Fellows. Fiona Anderson–Gough (ACC), Vicky Henderson (FIN), and Jimmy Huang (ISM) have all been appointed Readers.

postgraduate IT suite at WBS Scarman Road phase �

international award for WBS professorProfessor Nigel F Piercy, Marketing & Strategic Management group, together with colleagues Leonidas C Leonidou (University of Cyprus) and Constantine S Katsikeas (University of Leeds), has been awarded the Hans B Thorelli 5–Year Award by the Journal of International Marketing.

one of two WBS branded taxis

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participants and staff from the WDA, SIM and WBS at the scholarship presentations

WBS in the news nexus: summer 07

WBS increases media coverageWBS has achieved good growth in media coverage in the first six months of the year. As you would expect with a ‘full service’ business school, the range of coverage reflects the breadth of activities at WBS.

In addition to the welcome coverage achieved by alumni; media reports appeared on awards for staff and their high–profile achievements. Robin Wensley was awarded life membership of the Academy of Marketing, School Administrator Jenny Hocking now has an MBE as well as an MBA (from Warwick of course), John Purcell has been appointed as academic adviser at Acas, Martin Cave has conducted an independent review of social housing for the UK government, David Storey was a judge in the small business and enterprise–based Growing Business Awards, and Duncan Angwin, together with other MSM members, was responsible for leading the judging in the national management consultancy MCA Awards. All these were reported on in both general business and specialist media.

Research by our faculty continued to receive coverage. Just a few examples include Paul Edwards’ work on trends in employment law reported widely in print and broadcast, Martin Corbett’s interview on whether music and MP3s at work are good or bad, Bridget Woodman’s expert comments on global warming syndicated across the USA, and Dean Howard Thomas quoted widely in national and international press on topics such as the globalisation of business education, MBAs, and the Bologna Process.

Last but not least, media coverage this year is on course to equal £750,000 worth of advertising, using standard Advertising Value Equivalent measures – and this does not include online coverage. Vin Hammersley, WBS Director of Communications, comments, ‘There is real value in positive media coverage and the expertise of WBS academics is always in demand. To put these numbers into context, WBS gets more media coverage than many UK universities, even those who have business schools, and we have not dropped from the top five in the UK for media coverage in ten years.’

View the latest news releases, features, media coverage and multimedia at the WBS press centre

w www.wbs.ac.uk/news

A Diploma in Service Leadership taught by WBS is being delivered at the prestigious Singapore Institute of Management.

Following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding in January between the Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA), the Singapore Institute of Management (SIM) and WBS, the Diploma was launched at the end of March.

The Diploma in Service Leadership was developed at WBS by Professor Bob Johnston and Programme Director and Senior Teaching Fellow Andrew Hardwick, and is fully taught by WBS faculty. The three parties involved – the participant, their line manager and WBS – work together using a three way review process.

Warwick diploma in service leadership goes abroad

winter graduationTuesday 30 January saw graduands, with their families and friends return to campus to take part in the Winter graduation ceremonies.

The new facilities of Phase 3 Stage 1 were showcased as WBS Scarman Road hosted lunches for all of the programmes graduating, making it a memorable day for everyone involved.

MSc Marketing & Strategy graduates Viola Qiu and Claire Nash with Assistant Professors Duncan Robertson and Sotirios Paroutis

financial masters programmes awarded partner statusTwo WBS Specialist Masters programmes, MSc in Economics & Finance and MSc in Finance, have been awarded CFA Program Partner status. WBS is one of only six UK business schools to have achieved this recognition. The Chartered Financial Analyst Institute is an international organisation based in the USA with offices also in London and Hong Kong.

alumni careers mini–site launchThe Personal & Career Development (PCD) and Alumni teams are pleased to announce the launch of the Alumni Personal & Career Development mini–site, a recent addition to www.wbs.ac.uk. The purpose of this site is to provide an easily accessible source of advice and information to support WBS graduates in their career development.w www.wbs.ac.uk/careers/alumni/

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of the MSc Management and Business Studies to the MBA. Growth was secured through developments of part–time variations of the MBA. An evening version in collaboration with Jaguar and Massey Ferguson; a modular version in collaboration with Coopers and Lybrands and the Metropolitan Police and a distance learning version in collaboration with Wolsey Hall, a distance learning college in Oxford. New recruits to support this activity included Robin Wensley, Peter Doyle, Bob Galliers, Gibson Burrell, Chris Voss, John Bennington (who established the Local Government Centre) and Jenny Hocking as senior administrator. The Centre for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises was established, headed by Ian Watson, principally as a teaching activity, but in the ‘90s to take on a significant research activity led by David Storey.

Since the arrival of Howard Thomas as Dean in 2000 the growth and development has continued, with key appointments such as Colin Crouch in public management and Colin Carnall to lead an expansion of the Executive Education. The undergraduate programme has doubled in size and several new masters’ courses have been introduced. Considerable effort has been invested in the development of the alumni network and also fundraising. Today the School continues to develop and, along with the University, sees raising its international profile as a key objective.

looking backFormer Dean Robert Dyson, Professor of Operational Research, takes a journey through time from the early days of the School.

nexus: summer 07 WBS 40th anniversary

After six years with Pilkington Bros Plc, Robert joined SIBS (now WBS) in ��70. He was Chairman of the School from ��78–8�; then Dean in ���8–�000. He was also Pro–Vice Chancellor of the University

from ��8�–�5 and ����–�005. Robert chaired the Committee of Professors of Operational Research from ���5–�7. He was President of the Operational Research Society in ���8–�� and is a member of INFORMS and an Editor of the European Journal of Operational Research.

Research Interests: organisational performance measurement; data envelopment analysis; strategic planning/development; business modelling.

the author in minute

Pettigrew who established the Centre for Corporate Strategy and Change, and Stewart Hodges who created the Financial Options Research Centre. At the end of the ‘70s Hugh Clegg retired and George Bain secured the Pressed Steel Fisher Chair of Industrial Relations. Initially, other Chairs were funded by Barclays, the Steel Stockholders and the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation.

I joined the then School of Industrial and Business Studies (SIBS) in the summer of

1970, along with Keith Sisson, Thom Watson and George Bain (in the Industrial Relations Research Unit). My subject of Operational Research was already populated by Hylton Boothroyd, Roy Johnston and Derek Atkins, with others including Richard Hyman, Jimmy Dewhurst and Mel Hirst seemingly well established too, even though SIBS had been founded only three years previously.

The professoriate of Brian Houlden, the founding Chairman (sic Head) Hugh Clegg, Derek Waterworth and Bob Tricker had led a development that already included the BSc Management Sciences, launched against Funding Council advice; three masters’ courses: Management and Business Studies, Industrial Relations, and Management Science and Operational Research; doctoral students and executive courses. Research was underway in Industrial Relations and developing in Operational Research and elsewhere. We were twenty or so academic staff and five secretaries with 100–150 students. In 1978 I took over first as Acting Chairman and then served a three year term as Chairman. The ‘70s had been a period of retrenchment, consolidation and then steady growth. Roger Fawthrop took over from Brian Houlden and added the BSc Accounting and Financial Analysis to the teaching portfolio, and the School relocated to the FME and Social Studies buildings.

Research continued to develop patchily and the faculty grew by the end of the decade to 32 (plus secretaries and one administrator) including the recruitment of Andrew

From 1998–2000 I served as Dean of Warwick Business School. It was a very different place to the SIBS of the ‘70s with 150 academics; 100 support staff; in excess of 3,000 students on degree courses, including 2,500 on the Warwick MBA; an enviable reputation for research confirmed with the highest quality rating (along with London Business School and Lancaster) in the 2001 Research Assessment Exercise, and the first phases of the new building on the Warwickshire side of Gibbett Hill Road. At that time the School added accreditation by AACSB (US) and EQUIS (Europe) to the AMBA (UK) accreditation.

The transformation had begun in the mid ‘80s driven partly by the University’s response to cut–backs in government funding to the higher education sector, a report from the Foundation for Management Education about the size and scope of business schools and the appointment of George Bain as Chairman of the School.

SIBS was renamed the Warwick Business School following the earlier change of name

seven former Chairs: left to right, George Bain, Robin Wensley, Roger Fawthrop, Brian Houlden, Derek Waterworth, Robert Dyson, Thom Watson

��

forty years onKeith Bedell–Pearce (MSc Management & Business Studies ��68–70) looks back on his studies at WBS and how they subsequently shaped his life.

nexus: summer 07 WBS 40th anniversary

Keith Bedell–Pearce became a systems designer on leaving WBS and in ��7� joined Prudential where he worked initially on the development of some of the first commercial databases. In ��75, he moved to the Pru’s in–house legal department where he qualified as a solicitor, specialising in corporate and commercial law. He subsequently worked in their investment management business and the UK retail business and was appointed to the main board in ����.

He retired from the Prudential in �00� and became chairman of the Student Loans Company and of the Norwich & Peterborough Building Society. He is also currently Senior Independent Director of F&C Asset Management plc, Chairman of Directgov and an investment adviser to the Royal Society. He is a member of the WBS Advisory Board and an Honorary Professor of the School. His latest venture is as Chairman and co–owner of 4D Data Centres Ltd, a company that provides managed server–based hosting facilities and business continuity services.

the author in minute

It’s hard to believe it is 40 years since I travelled to Coventry to be interviewed by Brian Houlden for a place on the Class of ’68 MSc Management & Business Studies course. It was typical of Warwick then as now that the University had looked to the future and acted on one of the recommendations of the Robbins Report of 1963 that there should be ‘at least two major postgraduate Business Schools established in the UK.’

The MSc Industrial and Business Studies , which became the Warwick MBA in 1981, had 29 postgraduate students, many of whom were fresh from what was then three years of leisure activities in the form of an undergraduate degree course. We all had a shock coming – no more four hours of lectures a week and a couple of essays a month but a minimum of 12 hours work a day, seven days a week as we crammed what was a two–year course at London and Manchester into a single calendar year. Amazingly, we loved it. No one dropped out and I suspect many of us took an 80 hour working week as the norm and have never been able to break the habit since. The structure of the course was not dissimilar to that of the Warwick MBA today. The difference was that there was usually only one textbook for any particular subject area and in some areas not even that.

It was at WBS I caught the computer bug, even though bugs and viruses were as yet unknown concepts. Systems Theory was taught by Bob Tricker. We looked at the prospect of a Brave New World of integrated systems and cybernetics, wrote programmes in Algol and Fortran and prepared our own input for the University’s only computer (about the size of the small house) on 80 column punched cards.

The subject was called ‘Systems Theory’ because there was very little systems practice in the business world of 1968. My own thesis was on the design of a computer–based stock forecasting system for Marks & Spencer. This was ambitious because at that time M&S didn’t even have a computer. I had to simulate the running of the exponential smoothing model I constructed using a hand cranked accounting machine.

Marketing (with textbook by Kotler) was taught by Derek Waterworth, who

subsequently became Dean in 1976. My wife was amazed (as indeed I was) when I was appointed marketing director of Prudential 20 years later. She said I had only read the first chapter of Kotler. I agreed but that’s all you needed to know so long as you had done Derek’s case studies on Purina pet food and Kodak dismissing photocopying as having no commercial future.

Most of our courses were taught by the WBS professors but for me it was the Reader in Operations Research and Statistics, Hylton Boothroyd, who held centre–stage for much of the year at Warwick. Hylton was sparkling, wry and fiendish in turn and as we laboured through Hillier and Liebermann, I surreptitiously attempted to keep up with statistics through overnight reading of Facts from Figures, a Penguin paperback pre–cursor to Statistics for Dummies.

Hylton kept his masterstroke for the Statistics examination where the rubric at the top of the paper said ‘answer as many

questions as you like.’ Only one student, Brian Glicksman, who had a first in Maths from Cambridge, fancied answering a question about a shard of glass Hylton had found in a bottle of milk. To be precise, Brian answered only half the question and nothing else on the exam paper but Hylton was so struck by the originality of the answer that he gave Brian 100 per cent for the entire paper. I passed Statistics solely because in this case, I had read beyond the first chapter of Facts from Figures. I still keep a copy in my bottom drawer.

40 years on, I still speculate whether I would have benefited more from my year at WBS if I had had some previous business experience. My conclusion is that the results would have been different but not necessarily better. I emerged from Warwick in 1969 into what was at best the tepid heat of the technological revolution but I had a vision of what could be and as a result of the daily diet of case studies, the confidence to tackle any business problem. My only career plan was to change business disciplines every five years or so to maintain the stream of new challenges. The plan has worked for me but I have no doubt I wouldn’t have enjoyed such a rich and varied career without the springboard of my 12 months at WBS.

��

from MBA to MBEJenny Hocking, MBE (MBA ��88–��) is Associate Dean (Planning and Policy) of WBS. In this interview she recalls her early days at Warwick and her involvement in the subsequent success of the School.

‘I joined the University of Warwick in 1979 and my first job was in the Academic

Office, where one of my responsibilities was the University teaching timetable. It is hard to believe now but this was originally a pegboard mounted on the office wall and summer holidays were spent handwriting the timetable onto two A4 sheets taped together! There just had to be a better way, so I persuaded an IT specialist friend to put it onto a computer, which made me the proud owner of the very first administrative computer on campus.

‘In 1986 I was approached by George Bain, then Chair of the small, but rapidly growing School of Industrial Business Studies (SIBS) and asked if I would head up its administration. I felt this was a very exciting opportunity for Warwick, to which I was keen to contribute, so I jumped at the chance.’

With the recruitment of Jenny and a financial administrator, SIBS boasted 45 academics and around 10 non–academic staff. George Bain had a five year plan for a considerable expansion of programmes and research centres. He made 12 professorial appointments in two years, with each new appointee committed to contribute something major to build the School and improve its income, such as the setting up of a research centre or starting up of a new programme. Targets were set and there was a real sense of a group of people committed to a common vision but each with their own area of responsibility.

In 1988 George Bain wrote a paper SIBS – Its Nature and Name, which set out further plans for transforming the department to a professional business school and proposed a change of name to Warwick Business School. WBS subsequently became a well known brand and by the end of the ‘80s rose to be recognised as one of the leading Schools in the UK. The School was able to attract high quality people who were intrigued and attracted by the vision for putting WBS on the map.

Jenny continues, ‘The late Professor Peter Doyle, then Head of the MBA programme, encouraged me to do an MBA as he maintained that I needed to fully understand the customer perspectives and the business school ethos and environment.

nexus: summer 07 WBS 40th anniversary

The first year [1988] I joined the full–time programme, attending a proportion of the classes and I then joined the evening cohort. It was much better than I thought, as the advantage was that if things were getting you down on the MBA, you could switch off to concentrate on office matters and vice versa. I tend to be a bit obsessive and it taught me to use my time more rationally. The other thing I discovered is that time isn’t such a key issue as anyone has scope to increase their efficiency. (Jenny graduated with Distinction).

‘It was a great experience and I still keep in touch with some of the people I met on the full–time and evening programmes. It gave me an insight into what it is like to be a customer of the School. I feel that people were generally very happy then – and continue to be now – with the Warwick MBA experience. I was the first member of WBS staff to take our MBA but there have been a number since. It is also good for the University to have managers who can see the University from the student perspective from their own personal experience.

‘Every year something happens to affirm the progress the School has made – performance in the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE); evaluations by various accreditation groups;

visits from other business schools who see us as a benchmark institution. The new building has given us all a tremendous sense of achievement – seeing the project become reality and the positive impact of the new facilities on the wellbeing of students and staff.

‘The award of the MBE in 2007 was absolutely staggering from my point of view. It is a tremendous honour and it is extremely gratifying to feel that your colleagues actually think enough of your contribution to put forward a case and go through the process – you get a big high from that. Having played the leading role in building up the professional side of the School, it was a tremendous affirmation.

‘The School is now in the top 1 per cent of Business Schools in the world. I would like its record of attracting the very highest possible quality staff and students to continue uninterrupted into the next decade and to see it consolidate its international reputation and achieve the breadth of global recognition it fully deserves’.

Born in London, Jenny grew up in Australia. Graduating from the University of Tasmania with a first class degree in Politics, her career began as an academic (University of Tasmania), then briefly as a public servant (Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet), finally as a university departmental administrator (Australian National University, Canberra). She married a British academic in ��75 and returned to England. Jenny has lived and worked in the UK since then, with frequent visits to her adopted homeland.

In �005 she changed roles from being responsible for the non–academic administration of the School, to responsibility for planning and policy issues. The twin focus of this role is on strategic planning, decision–making and implementation, and organisational responsiveness to change.

Jenny was awarded the MBE for services to Higher Education in the �007 New Year’s honours. She is also a member of the WBS Advisory Board.

the author in minute

��nexus: summer 07 WBS 40th anniversary

in credit in KenyaJohn K Kariuki (BSc Applied Maths ��75–8, FMBA ��8�–�) came to Warwick from Nairobi as an undergraduate and returned to study for an MBA at WBS. Here John provides an update on his career and the happy memories of Warwick he still retains.

After working for over 15 years in the banking, IT and manufacturing

industries, I joined AAR Health Services, the largest private health care provider in East Africa in June 1996 as CEO. The majority shareholding of the Company was then held by the Company’s late founder, Bengt Beckmann, a Swedish entrepreneur who six years earlier had invited me to serve on his advisory Board. I had reached a stage in my career where I wanted to run a business in which I could acquire shares and AAR Health Services presented that opportunity.

However two years after joining the company, I was only able to acquire a very small shareholding (less than 1 percent). It became evident that without deep pockets I was unlikely to acquire a significant shareholding in a company that had grown by over 100 percent in those two years and was now attracting institutional equity investors like the IFC.

I therefore started toying with the idea of setting up a new business in partnership with AAR Health Services. In mid 1998 I proposed to Bengt that we form a new company to provide insurance premium financing services to 55,000 customers. (In East Africa, health insurance premiums are payable annually in advance). He liked the idea instantly and thought it tied in well with my banking background. Sadly by this time he had already contracted leukaemia and passed away a few months later.

The main shareholders of the Company are AAR Health Services (40 percent), Loita Capital Partners International, a South Africa–based investment banking firm (35 per cent), and myself (22 percent). The main challenge I faced in the early days was obtaining credit lines from commercial banks to finance our advances book. We therefore started with very small lines and kept overheads very low by outsourcing whatever we could. Over the years we have focused on building a good track record with banks and currently have sufficient credit lines from a number of banks to lend in excess of US$15m per annum.

We have expanded our products to include asset financing, general insurance premiums financing, internet subscriptions financing, and other consumer loan products. We are in the process of converting the business into a deposit–taking Micro Finance Institution this year and our goal is to become a fully fledged commercial bank in five years’ time. We also recently expanded our operations to Uganda and Tanzania.

I would say my Maths degree gave me a good foundation for developing my analytical skills, while the MBA provided the theoretical framework for developing practical business skills.

The lecturer who made the greatest impression on me was the late Dr John Charnock who was the International House warden, where I lived for three years. He was

also a lecturer at the Business School and was the one who persuaded me to come back to do an MBA. He even guaranteed me residence on the prestigious 3rd floor of International House. Sadly he passed away two weeks after I enrolled on the MBA course. He was a remarkable human being and greatly admired by many overseas students.

I really enjoyed my days at Warwick, both in the 70s and 80s and made some great friends. What hit me when I first arrived in 1975 was the actual number of bars on campus! The Union building had just been refurbished and it was a great place to meet new people, particularly the disco on the first floor and the plush Elephant’s Nest with its thick purple carpet. However I never quite got used to the cold winters, nor the very hot summers – remember 1976!

What I remember most about the MBA course was the sheer volume of reading material we had to go through every day. The key to it was knowing how best to share the workload within your designated syndicate group. And in those days there was no email so you couldn’t circulate your notes to your group members before the syndicate meetings – everyone had to write their notes by hand (there were no PCs don’t forget!) and bring them along.

w www.aarcredit.comw www.aarhealth.com

John Kariuki (left) and studying hard for his MBA in 1981 (above)

We are in the process of converting the

business into a deposit–taking Micro Finance Institution this year and our goal is to become a fully fledged commercial bank in five years’ time

Shortly after his death I resigned as CEO of AAR Health Services to set up the new business. In May 1999, we established AAR Credit Services as an autonomous division of AAR Health Services. A year later we converted the business into a separate limited liability company, and have continued to register growing profits since then.

�4

40 years of WBS

1976�

Derek Waterworth becomes Chair of SIBS

196�7

Two years after the University is formed, SIBS (The School of Industrial & Business Studies) springs to life as one of the first business schools in the UK with Brian Houlden as Chair

Hugh Clegg appointed founding Professor of Industrial Relations

1973�

Roger Fawthrop becomes Chair of SIBS

1978

Robert Dyson becomes Chair of SIBS

1981

Thom Watson becomes Chair of SIBS

MSc in Management & Business Studies becomes the Warwick MBA

1983�

George Bain becomes Chair of SIBS

1984�

Centre for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises begins operations

1986�

WBS is one of three UK business schools to be rated as ‘outstanding’ by UGC in the research selection exercise

The launch of the Warwick MBA by distance learning

1989

Robin Wensley becomes Chair of WBS

1990�

The number of academics at WBS reaches 100

1970�

Launch of the Industrial Relations Research Unit

1980�

Social Studies building under construction

1977

MSc Management & Business Studies studentsmid–196�0�s

View from the library towards Rootes Social building

1987

Alumni 3,400 Students 815 Staff 104 Turnover 3.1m Courses 11

1977

Alumni 965 Students 204 Staff 41 Courses 6

1995�

Sue Bridgewater becomes the first Warwick MBA to achieve a PhD

1989

A seminar in the ‘new’ MBA teaching centre

1988

WBS takes its present name

MBA teaching centre opens

196�8

First three masters courses launched

196�9

First undergraduate course launched

1985�

Peter Doyle becomes Director of the Warwick MBA by full-time study

Launch of the Warwick MBA by evening & integrated study

1967 1977 1987

196�7

Students 24 Staff 5 Courses 3

4�0� years of WBSSince 1967 WBS has achieved successful growth in all areas.

�5

1994�

Robert Galliers becomes Chair of WBS

The launch of the Warwick MBA by modular study

1998

Robert Dyson becomes Dean of WBS, leading the School for a second time

WBS is formally admitted to PIM (Partnership in International Management)

20�0�0�

WBS is the first UK business school to be triple accredited by AACSB, AMBA, & EFMD

Howard Thomas becomes Dean of WBS

20�0�1

WBS is again awarded the highest rating for the quality of its research

WBS Scarman Road phase 1 opens

my.wbs community web site launched

20�0�3�

Guardian survey of top employers rates WBS graduates as most employable in the UK

Wharton & WBS agree exclusive under–graduate exchange programme

20�0�6�

With three new specialist masters degrees, and the MSc Management, WBS now has ten masters courses

20�0�7

Phase 3a of WBS Scarman Road opens

Alumni

Students

Turnover

Programmes

Staff

1997

Alumni 10,700 Students 3,160 Staff 263 Turnover 12.4m Courses 17

1995�

Sue Bridgewater becomes the first Warwick MBA to achieve a PhD

20�0�0�

Valerie Lachman becomes the 2,000th graduate of the Warwick MBA

20�0�5�

The Times Good University Guide 2006 places WBS as the best overall under-graduate business education provider in the UK

20�0�2

Phase 2 of WBS Scarman Road opens

20�0�7

WBS celebrates 40 years of innovation, diversity, and success

Phase 3a of Scarman Road opens

20�0�4�

Five new professors join WBS. Seven more are in the process of recruitment

1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2004 2005 2006 2007

20�0�7

Alumni 21,500 Students 7,539 Staff 304 Turnover 36.5m Courses 26

2003

�6

top textNigel Slack, Bob Johnston and Stuart Chambers reveal the story behind the success of Operations Management, now in its fifth edition.

nexus: summer 07 WBS 40th anniversary

Back in 1995 the first edition of a new textbook in operations management was launched. It was the end result

of three years of work from the Operations Management Group at WBS. Of course we hoped it would do well and would meet with the approval of our fellow operations management teachers around the world. But, to be honest, we really had no idea just how quickly it would establish itself as the leading text in its area. Now, as we are starting to think about the sixth edition, it is unquestionably the most influential textbook in its area and some claim it is the best selling operations management text in the world (figures are a bit fuzzy, but it has a dominant share of the European market; the US market is huge but very fragmented).

So why has it been so successful? Well, it’s sometimes difficult to know when you are so close to it, but perhaps to answer the question it’s worth going back to the early 90s when we started to write the book and look at why and how we did it and maybe it is also something to do with how we have developed it since then.

Looking back there were probably three major reasons why we launched ourselves on what we knew to be a huge project. First, we were frustrated at the lack of an appropriate textbook for our own students. In the early ‘90s there were several rather good US authored texts with high production values that treated the subject in a solid and coherent manner. But they were very, well … American. Almost all the examples were from the US and the treatment of the subject was very quantitative.

In Europe, operations management had developed separately from operational research (OR) and, although adopting some quantitative techniques, it is a subject that primarily concerns the management of operations rather than the modelling of operations. There were also some European authored books, but none that we liked. They were either old–fashioned in their approach, or amateurishly written, or both. Our aim was to write a book that conveyed our enthusiasm for the subject, had high production values (in other words, it looked good), and was firmly European/international in focus.

But it wasn’t just that there was a clear hole in the market to be filled that motivated us.

We also felt we had something to say. We held views that, although not radically different from some other authors, we felt represented both a coherent and a more modern view of operations. Maybe we were also arrogant enough to believe that everyone else should, at the very least, hear what our views were!

Everyone in the group at the time was involved in planning the approach to the book. However, not everyone wanted to be an author. Rhian Silvestro, who is now Head of the Operations Group, was hugely influential in shaping our ideas but at the time wanted to concentrate on her doctorate.

And because everyone was involved, the debates on how the book should be shaped were both creative and (at times) challenging. What did emerge was a set of principles that still shape the book today. Above all, the style had to be honest in reflecting what we felt was important in the area, whilst still presenting alternative perspectives where they exist. The style should be accessible without being unintelligent, reflect our passion for the subject, and, where possible, be fun.

We were also clear that we should illustrate ideas with plenty of examples based on our contacts with a wide variety of industries and organisations that allowed us to underpin the content with real life issues. This would make the book come alive. Moreover, these examples should be international in the sense that they were drawn from all parts of the world (not just North America as has been the norm hitherto) and also reflect different industry sectors (and not just manufacturing).

This last point is particularly important. Arguably the most fundamental difference between our book and those published previously was its insistence on a more appropriate balance between manufacturing and non–manufacturing examples. Even now there is a bias amongst operations academics

to illustrate their ideas (and set their research) in the context of manufacturing industry. Yet nowhere in the world does manufacturing account for the majority of gross domestic product (GDP). In most developed economies it is under 20 per cent of GDP. Any subject therefore that ties itself to manufacturing is never going to have an impact on how managers think. We decided our book would be balanced and reflect a whole range of different industries.

This proved quite controversial with some die–hard manufacturing colleagues in other universities. Some said we were ‘neutering’ the subject (manufacturing presumably, being a more virile context than the ‘effete’

service sector). Others almost implied that it was our duty to help the country return to some golden age in the past when manufacturing dominated the economy (actually, in the history of humankind there has never been a time when manufacturing dominated the economy).

The other factor that helped us get our book right is that we worked closely with our publishers. The original book was published under the Pitman imprint which was part of the Pearson Group. Then Pearson

took over Prentice Hall so now the book is published under the ‘Financial Times Prentice Hall’ imprint. But whatever corporate changes were going on, we always found our publishers professional, helpful, and very much committed to helping us produce the best book possible. In our experience publishers are not the rapacious beasts that some academics hold them to be. They are there to help authors and although our publishing team has been through many changes of personnel; we have always found that that is exactly what they do.

What have we done since those early days? Partly we have done more of the same. The principles that we adopted when we first started the project still hold good. But this does not mean that you don’t have to change anything. In order to keep the book fresh it is absolutely vital to maintain a flow of new illustrations and examples which are topical and reflect any changes in the subject. Why is this important? Well just think, the undergraduates that are currently using our book were about four years old when we started writing it! Examples and stories that seem relatively recent to us are distant history to them. And anyway, there are always new examples appearing in the press that are just great at illustrating the ideas we are covering.

the bookThe 5th Edition of Operations Managementis published by FT Prentice Hall. w tinyurl.com/3y5s49

�7nexus: summer 07 WBS 40th anniversary

Having said that, we do try to avoid changing the cosmetic aspects of the book simply for its own sake. With every new edition we agonise over what changes would improve the book, either to keep it topical or to make it easier to use without undermining the coherence that makes it successful. This is not always easy to achieve. We are always trying to balance how students might respond to any change against how the lecturers that recommend the book might respond. Broadly speaking, students want to be assured that the book is authoritative and reflects modern managerial reality. Lecturers, on the other hand, are far more conservative. After all, each change we make means that they have to change the way they teach the subject.

Not surprisingly, the big challenge we now face is how to make effective use of internet–based support materials. We are rapidly moving to the point where the book itself is almost the tip of the iceberg. Less visible is a wealth of online material such as study guides, further examples, videos and podcasts, that help students learn more effectively and lecturers teach more effectively. Dealing with the opportunities presented by the internet, iPods, and whatever other technology emerges in the future, will be the real challenge for us over the next few years.

Nigel Slack is Professor of Operations Management & Strategy. He was formerly University Lecturer in Operations Management at Oxford University, and Fellow of Templeton College, Oxford, then Lucas Professor of Manufacturing Systems Engineering and Professor of Manufacturing Strategy, Brunel University. He was originally an Engineer and Production Manager in mass production industries. He is also founder committee member of the Operations Management Association.

Bob Johnston is Professor of Operations Management. He formerly held posts, including line manager and operations manager, with several service organisations. Bob provides advice to a wide range of private and public organisations. He is currently academic director of the Diploma in Service Leadership. Bob serves on the editorial boards of nine leading journals and is a vice president of the Institute of Customer Service.

Stuart Chambers is Principal Teaching Fellow, Operations Management Group. He was formerly Senior Research Officer at Bath University (Manufacturing Strategy Development). Before that Stuart held production management positions in Tube Investments and Marley Tile Company.

3 authors in minute

you can help We would really appreciate your help in identifying new materials for the next edition of Operations Management. Specifically, we are looking for interesting examples of any aspect of operations management, illustrating contemporary issues, best practices, or unusual contexts. Sources could be newspapers, journal articles, the Internet, your own organisation and personal network, or your own experiences. From your raw input, we hope to be able to create new boxed examples and short case studies, preferably with good quality photos, and even short videos.

All contributions will be welcomed, but we particularly need more ideas from beyond Europe, and in services and the public sector. We will generally need written permission from the organisation featured (usually when we have completed the writing), unless the information is already in the public domain.

Please send any ideas to Stuart who will do the initial processing.e stuart.chambers@wbs.ac.uk

So for a successful book, here is the recipe.

• Be passionate and enthusiastic about your subject but not so evangelical that you are blind to alternative views.

• There has to be a market for it. Make sure you understand the current offerings and where there may be potential gaps to fill.

• A market opportunity is necessary but not sufficient. You have to produce a product that’s better, different, or both (ours was both). There has to be something about it that makes it difficult to compete with.

• The process of creating a deliverable product is important. One of our publishers told us she gets lots of potentially great ideas from academics, but very few author groups can organise themselves to actually deliver it as promised.

Does all this sound familiar? Markets, product development, improvement and processes for delivering the product. The same things that hold true for business in general also hold true for writing a successful textbook.

Who said that those that can’t do, teach?

Bob Johnston, Nigel Slack and Stuart Chambers

�8 nexus: summer 07 WBS 40th anniversarynexus: summer 07 WBS 40th anniversary

I joined the Trust as its Chief Executive in August 2003, having previously been Finance Director at the Countess of Chester NHS Trust for 5 years. I was recruited by the Board at the time to lead the Trust in its quest to become one of the first Foundation Trusts (FT) in the country, which we successfully achieved in April 2005. This is the Government’s policy of encouraging leading NHS Trusts to break away from ‘direct rule’ from Whitehall and stand alone as quasi independent NHS ‘public benefit corporations’ – effectively running ourselves as a business for the benefit of our patients.

Since becoming a FT, we have expanded our specialist services quite substantially, including increasing our cancer services by 20 per cent and IVF services by 30 per cent. We have signed a ground–breaking deal with the private sector to further develop our IVF services for patients across the North West and are currently exploring entering into franchise arrangements with other non

the DLMBA with colleagues from across many sectors. Even though I had just started work in the NHS, which was completely new to me at the time, it was clear to me that the service would need and benefit from sound business management techniques, hence my decision to undertake the Warwick MBA. Although the modules of the course covered all the main business disciplines, as I had hoped, it was really the opportunity simply to mix with such a wide range of people from such diverse backgrounds – and from across the world – that made it such a success and inspiration to me.

After completing my MBA I knew I wanted to pursue a career in senior management in the NHS, trying to apply the best business principles to the service for the benefit of the patients we serve. I have been very lucky that this has chimed well with the Government’s desire to see this happen also and have had such a wonderful opportunity to put this into practice with all my colleagues here at The Women’s.

FT NHS hospitals to enable the Liverpool Women’s brand to be available more widely.

Our financial success during the first two years as an FT has enabled us to develop ambitious capital schemes to provide a brand new state of the art breast cancer centre, new laboratories for embryo development and transfer, along with redesigned modern services to offer women real choice on the type of delivery they want for themselves and their baby.

Running a successful Foundation Trust hospital is very similar to running any successful business. It needs to be based on sound principles for success, many of which I studied and developed my own thinking on during my time at WBS during the ‘90s. It needs:

• Excellent, highly motivated people, working together in teams towards common, shared goals.

• People who want to lead and to be very well led at all levels in the organisation. From a personal perspective, you need to be visible to people and approachable, willing to listen.

• A total commitment to excellent quality of service.

• A commitment to trying to do the right thing, right first time.

• A willingness to be flexible in the design of services to meet patients’ needs and expectations – as well as make services as efficient as possible.

Many of these principles were ideas we debated and discussed during my time on

trust in successLouise Shepherd (DLMBA ���4–7) MA CPFA, Chief Executive of the Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust, gives a unique insight into the work of the Trust and her key contribution to its success.

Louise joined Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust in August �00�, successfully leading it through to NHS Foundation Trust status in April �005, the first NHS Trust on Merseyside to achieve that accolade. In January �007, the Trust was placed amongst the top 8 in the country by Monitor, the Independent Regulator for Foundation Trusts.

Prior to this she was Deputy Chief Executive and Finance Director at the Countess of Chester NHS Trust for over five years after first joining the Health Service in ���� as Director of Business Development at Birmingham Heartlands and Solihull NHS Trust. After leaving Cambridge University in ��85, she trained as an accountant in local government before joining KPMG in Birmingham as a financial and management consultant to the public sector.

Louise has a number of keen interests, including hill walking (she is currently three–quarters of the way through climbing all of Scotland’s ‘Munros’), music (she plays the violin in The Liverpool Mozart Orchestra) and football – she has faithfully followed The Rams (Derby County), her home town football club, since going to her first game at the age of 5.

She lives in Cheshire with husband Keith and daughter Katie, who is �8 months old.

the author in minute

Running a successful Foundation Trust

hospital is very similar to running any successful business. It needs to be based on sound principles for success, many of which I studied at WBS

Liverpool Women’s is one of only two specialist women’s hospitals in the UK

and was originally formed following an amalgamation of four previously separate women’s hospital services in Liverpool in 1993, moving onto its brand new site in Toxteth in 1995.

We provide a range of services supporting women’s reproductive health and very young babies not only in Liverpool and Greater Merseyside, but, in respect of our specialist services: maternity, neonatal, specialist reproductive medicine (IVF), gynaecology, breast cancer and genetics; regionally in the North West and nationally across the UK. We have a wonderful, modern facility and employ around 1500 staff in the delivery of these services. Our annual turnover is around £80m.

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The International Group aims to better represent and support the many alumni outside the UK. We are growing a network of overseas volunteers to act as informal focal points for alumni in their country. They will be instrumental in keeping us informed about what is happening in their region and we will work closely with them to provide support, guidance and assistance wherever possible in setting up groups and events in their area. One obvious and immediate goal in this 40th anniversary year for WBS is to encourage as many gatherings of overseas alumni for the ‘Global Dinners’ on 15 November.

The board has one formal committee, the Nominations Committee which consists of three alumni members and the Head of Alumni Relations. Three further board members are working with the Committee on implementing the following initiatives in 2007:• Handling queries from potential board applicants.• Enhancing processes such as board selection and

induction.• Developing responsibilities such as succession

planning for board positions.• Proposing structural changes for the board such as

creation of a board vice–chair role.

alumni board

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The international relations team is:

Manny Coulon (Chair) FMBA ���8–�

David Allan MPA �000–4

Rob McCulloch BSc Management Sciences ��7�–5

Vivek Rajagopal Current FMBA student

Clive South EXMBA ���6–�

Kate Spencer Current DLMBA student

Your Alumni Board has �5 members drawn from the breadth of the alumni community, three student members and five WBS staff members. Together we are focused on building engagement across the alumni body through three priorities for �007: • International relations • Strategy • Board development

The strategy team is:

Toby Cross DLMBA �00�–6

Ross Milburn DLMBA �00�–6

Ananda Roy FMBA �005–6

Mark Whitley FMBA ����–0�

Henri Winand EXMBA ����–0�

The board development team is:

Paul Wyman (Chair) BSc Management Sciences ��7�–4

Richard Hughes FMBA ���4–5

Nick Jessett EXMBA ��85–�

Ross Milburn DLMBA �00�–6

Swag Mukerji FMBA ����–�

David Sykes FMBA ��86–7

If you would like to get involved, or be put in touch with the people in your country or region who have already volunteered, contact Manny at:e emmanuel.coulon98@mba.wbs.ac.uk

International relations – led by Manny Coulon

If you’d like to get involved in shaping the Dean’s challenge, either by contributing or helping to gather views of Alumni then please contact: e toby.cross01@mba.wbs.ac.uk without delay.

Howard Thomas, our Dean, has issued a challenge to us, to contribute to a future vision of what WBS should be in ten years’ time.

We are therefore interested in the views of the broad alumni body and are gathering these through the year. We also feed into the planning cycle for Alumni Relations from a strategic perspective.

Strategy – led by Toby Cross

Board development – led by Paul Wyman

Manny Coulon

Paul Wyman

Four members of the Alumni Board will step down in 2007, so if you are interested in getting involved, the deadline for applications will be in September and details will be available online w www.wbs.ac.uk/alumni/services.cfm

In the meantime, if you would like to know more about joining the board you can contact:e paul.wyman71@bsc.wbs.ac.uk

Gill Thewlis: Chair

Toby Cross

If you have any other questions or queries about how to get involved then by all means contact me:

Gill ThewlisFMBA ��8�–�0Chair, WBS Alumni Board

e gillian.thewlis8�@mba.wbs.ac.uk

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Mårten AbrahamsenUndergraduate programme

It has been almost three years since it all started and by the time this is published, I will no longer be a student. Looking back, I am truly amazed by the amount of knowledge I’ve gained, both inside and outside the lecture theatres. The Undergraduate programme at WBS is very flexible; there is a long list of business modules to choose from and I even got to study abroad for a year – in Illinois, USA.

But Warwick wouldn’t be the same without the high calibre students and professors. In classes involving group work, I’ve been part of group discussions and problem–solving on a level that I never thought was possible before I came here. The overall Warwick experience has been fantastic; WBS has prepared me for business in every possible way since the very first day. They have been three great years, and I am now ready to move on to the ‘real world’ as a proud graduate of Warwick Business School.

After graduation, I will be joining the Investment Banking Division of Goldman Sachs in London.

Hazel HuangDoctoral programme

Prior to my PhD studies, I taught undergraduate courses for a year and also had seven years experience of sales and marketing in Taiwan. I came to WBS in 2004 and my research area is consumer behaviour.

Being a doctoral researcher at WBS is a great experience. My supervisors are top researchers in the field and are committed to helping me shape my ideas, enhance my research capabilities, and build my confidence. I also have many opportunities for intellectual exchange with great minds from all over the world.

WBS strives to build a friendly atmosphere around doctoral researchers. The first year was particularly valuable in terms of bonding with other researchers, who go through the same ups and downs in the PhD process. Morning coffee is an ideal opportunity to interact with doctoral researchers from different stages as well as faculty members. The PhD experience is very different from working in industry or studying for a masters degree. It involves different interests, excitement and stresses! I have found the friendly environment and support from supervisors and colleagues we have at Warwick very important.

Kunal JhanjiSpecialist Masters programme

It had always been my dream to study at WBS owing to its world–class standards and the reputation it holds. Amazingly, WBS has delivered more, in terms of professionalism and teaching, than I expected. It has helped me grow both intellectually and professionally. It was definitely one of the best decisions of my life to come here and study.

WBS gives you invaluable interaction with some of the finest brains in the teaching world. You get the opportunity to learn from the best minds, and interacting with them gives you a wide knowledge base and an altogether different level of confidence. The teaching is very practical and oriented towards the real world: the case studies are all from real companies which give a flavour of the challenges you’ll face at work and external speakers talk about real business issues and problems.

It has been an extraordinary experience; WBS is a place where you have the right combination of superb quality of study and amazing campus. This is a place where you can have the experience of a lifetime.

Dustie Houchin MBA programme

Prior to joining the full–time MBA cohort, I was a human and veterinary osteopath working in London and the South. My decision to study for an MBA was born of a need for change and opportunity. I enjoyed being a consultant but yearned for something more challenging. The problem was that I lacked the business acumen to approach an international organisation and sell myself appropriately.

So I began the MBA, hoping that I could attain the business education required to do what I wanted to do. I had no idea how I would fit in on the programme; but actually a fundamental

lesson that I have learned whilst on the MBA is that tenacity and creativity create success – not certificates.

The MBA has given me the confidence and know–how to communicate with business professionals, and to challenge my environment at an academic level. And the truth is that whilst we are all the keepers of our own destiny, being at WBS has given me the opportunity to make my life whatever I want it to be.

four current students share their experience of studying at WBS

nexus: summer 07 WBS 40th anniversarynexus: summer 07 WBS 40th anniversary

WBS in �007

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WBS wants and needs to stay ahead as a leading teaching and research institution, attracting the most able students regardless of their situation, and moulding outstanding and unique leaders across business and management. In order to achieve these goals WBS has identified three key priority areas to support via the Fund for Academic Excellence; the learning environment, our students and our faculty.

What your donation can doAll gifts received by WBS will only go to supporting students, faculty or the learning environment. Currently unrestricted gifts are supporting the new building development.

EVERY GIFT is valuable to us at WBS and we appreciate that some donors do not have the ability to give large sums of money. However, accumulative and on–going gifts will quickly combine to create scholarships and faculty exchange.

Specific giving opportunities include:

donor in profile

Manny Coulon (FMBA ���8–�)Managing Director, ideasforthekids.com,Member of WBS Alumni Board

‘I have always believed in getting involved and giving something back. Working on the Alumni Board and also helping with courses wherever possible are two ways of doing so, though obviously not everyone is able to do this.

Clearly, donating to WBS is an option to everyone who wants to express their appreciation for their time at the business school. I am delighted to be in a position to give on a regular basis and know that all monies received by WBS, from small regular donations to large one–off gifts help in many ways to grow the School – building on its academic excellence, adding to the latest phase of building or even helping develop new courses’.

challenging minds, changing lives

WBS development programme

thank you: our pilot WBS telephone campaign!

Current Warwick students recently called a small number of MBA alumni to raise funds for the WBS Fund for Academic Excellence (FAE). This was a pilot exercise and we were delighted to raise £�8,000.

The FAE is directed towards supporting students through bursaries and scholarships, supporting faculty through nurturing exchange with our global business school partners and last, but by no means least, supporting the development of WBS’s learning environment, which in turn enhances learning and attracts the best talent – people who could well be future global leaders.

Thank you to everyone who gave so generously.

Following this success, we are now planning a further telephone campaign. If you would like to be called, please ensure that your contact details are up to date:

w www.wbs.ac.uk/alumni/membership_update.cfm

will create one year’s funding for an undergraduate scholarship for a student from a less advantaged

background, giving them the opportunity to take up their offer of study at the School

will create an MBA scholarship for a full–time MBA student – WBS will match fund your £6,000 donation,

creating a £12,000 award for a future inspirational leader

will create a new lecture theatre at WBS, benefiting our students with state–of–the–art facilities including

electronic flip charts, digital projectors, visualisers (electronic OHPs), ‘self drive’ recording facilities and

digital audio loops

will create a new seminar room in the School, creating a more intimate and informal teaching and learning

experience for groups of 20–30

will provide a new syndicate room. This will enable students from diverse backgrounds to benefit from

collaborative group work, which is a critical part of their learning experience at WBS.

will provide funds for a faculty exchange with one of our prestigious global partners.

will create an MBA scholarship for a distance learning MBA student – WBS will match fund your £4,000

donation – creating an £8,000 award for a talented student

If you would like to discuss a donation in further detail please contact the Development Office.T +44 (0)24 7657 5835 e Development.Office@wbs.ac.uk

You can also find more information on: w www.wbs.ac.uk/about/development and give securely online via the Giving to Warwick web site: w www.warwick.ac.uk/go/givenow

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For many students, myself included, the end of the final term of the 2006/7 year marks the end of our three years at Warwick. Needless to say, the Warwick Business School Society (WBSS) has played an instrumental part in adding value to the undergraduate experience. Our annual

Forum attracted influential and charismatic speakers including Thomas Berglund, CEO of Securitas, and WBS’s

very own Dr David Finnegan. A lasting philosophy for delegates was that there is no single or ‘best’ road to success. For me however, Warwick Business School and WBSS in

particular has been an essential vehicle

I strongly believe in Warwick’s ability to deliver a solid and pragmatic business education and am thrilled that WBS was ranked #1 for undergraduate employability by The Guardian. As I hand over the Presidency to

Alexander Groenert, I am sure the momentum we have built and legacy we have created will live on for the next generation of WBS students. The position of Non–Executive Director represents a new seat on the WBSS Executive Board and I am

honoured to be the first to occupy it. By pledging my financial support I hope to strengthen an ethos of mutual advocacy: flying the WBS flag and taking pride in being a graduate of Warwick Business School.

I would like to thank the WBSS Executive Committee for all their hard work and dedication this year.

Robert Downer, Non–Executive Director, WBSS

undergrad update

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I joined the WBSS in my first term and have since passionately believed in further promoting and developing everything the society has to offer. As President I aim to ensure that every student at Warwick University has the opportunity to reap the benefits provided by the WBSS. Our corporate and social committees have already begun working on the next Business Ball, while also planning further rewards for our members.

I step into the next academic year with the utmost confidence due in part to an exceptionally strong Executive Board. Together we can build on the excellent reputation which Robert has maintained. For the success we have enjoyed, and the ambitions we are continually pursuing, we have our members to thank. w www.wbss.co.uk

Alexander Groenert, President, WBSS

contact detailsAlumni 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

Kathryn Chedgzoy & Emily Jamieson, Development & Alumni Relations AssistantsT +44 (0)24 7652 2813E kathryn.chedgzoy@wbs.ac.ukE emily.jamieson@wbs.ac.uk

Sue Cresswell, Paula Kersten, Jane Varley. Events Coordinatorst +44 (0)24 7657 3967T +44 (0)24 7615 0171T +44 (0)24 7615 0515e sue.cresswell@wbs.ac.uke paula.kersten@wbs.ac.uke jane.varley@wbs.ac.uk

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

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

Ben PlummerDirector of Development & Alumni Relationst +44(0)24 7652 4188e ben.plummer@wbs.ac.uk

In–house photography by John Weatherly

nexus is the magazine of the Alumni Association, Warwick Business School T +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

WBS in the late ‘60sHere Roger Tabor (MSc Management & Business Studies 1969–70) responds to our call for memories of WBS.

In 1969 I was fortunate to get a scholarship from my employer, The Post Office, to do a postgraduate business degree, and was accepted for an MSc (the Warwick MBA not having been invented then). Hard to imagine, but when I started I was still a civil servant working for a Postmaster General, and the big change to be an employee of a public corporation happened in October. Both at work and on the course there was a great sense of being in on something new. Business postgraduate degrees were still relatively new, and I think we were only the third cohort at Warwick, itself still only a few years old.

The University was a different place then, much smaller than today. The Business School operated from the East Site and Rootes Hall was fenced off because the still fairly new white tiles were falling off. I remember the long trek down to the computer centre where we operated machines to produce punch cards, one to each line of a program, and the long wait for the batch to be returned with the inevitable error report!

There was student unrest that year, but the protests tended to pass us postgrads by, immersed in our work on the East Site, and with many of us living off site. It was a good year, and the qualification got me a leg up in the PO when I returned. Unusually, I actually stayed with the same employer until retirement although I branched out to take a non–exec position with a health quango.

I also got deeply involved with CIPFA, the public sector accountancy body, which, I am delighted to say, now has a fruitful collaboration with Warwick Business School.

mid 1960s – view from the library towards Rootes Social building

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40th anniversary global celebration

�5 November �007

With graduates in over ��0 countries we wanted to include everyone in our 40th anniversary celebrations. Building on the idea of New Year celebrations we decided to mirror Warwick’s ambitious spirit and try to have the largest ever gathering of WBS alumni in one day. Why don’t you get together with WBS graduates wherever you are and enjoy drinks or a meal, toast the future success of WBS, and ensure that our presence as a global business school is felt!

To make this happen we are relying on alumni volunteers throughout the world. Each event will take on

its own character, depending on what the group organising it has in mind. We already have volunteers in lots of cities (see below) who will be planning events, but it isn’t too late for you to get involved. Some events will be large and some may only be a few people. It doesn’t matter how many events take place in one country – the more the merrier – although we do hope that people may be willing to travel a little to mark the occasion.

You might be wondering how to get involved. If your region is listed below then you could join the organising committee or just ensure that your email address is

up to date so that you receive the invitation. If your region isn’t listed then do contact us and volunteer e alumni@wbs.ac.uk

Each gathering will receive a ‘party pack’ to support your activities and ensure that however ‘local’ the event, there is still a flavour of WBS.

This is a great opportunity to build networks in your area. If you would like to know who else is near you don’t forget you can check using the online directory at w www.wbs.ac.uk/alumni Be sure to keep your contact details up to date or we will not be able to send you the invitation.

We look forward to seeing you on �5 November!

Canada (Toronto) China (Beijing)

China (Hong Kong)China (Shanghai)

Greece (Athens)

Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur)Norway (Oslo) SingaporeSweden (Stockholm)United Arab Emirates (Dubai)

�4

The magnificent London landmark Tower Bridge was the venue for Warwick Business School’s 5th Annual Dinner. Guests were invited to this celebratory occasion because of their substantial contributions to the heritage and fabric of WBS. The atmosphere made it clear that everyone present was a strong advocate for and deeply passionate about WBS, and about helping the School to achieve its challenging objectives.

Speeches from the Vice–Chancellor and the Dean inspired alumni, friends, retired and present staff and donors by reference to the many achievements of WBS and the University of Warwick through–out the last forty years. The list of accolades and accomplishments is truly impressive for a relatively young school built on muddy playing fields. However, the success of the past did not detract from the passion and enthusiasm both Professors Nigel Thrift and Howard Thomas had for communicating the vision of WBS over the next five years – to be the best European business school.

Eighty guests enjoyed fine dining (no mean feat at 100 feet!) breathtaking views of London and an opportunity to make new contacts. This was one of several events earmarked as 40th Anniversary celebrations. Others include the Summer Ball and Open Day in July and the Global Dinners on 15 November.

�4

UK events review

How to sum up the Academic Update Seminar held at WBS on Saturday 10th March 2007? – ‘excellent’! The day was an opportunity to revisit a number of MBA topics and to meet a wide range of alumni – the excellent attendance of over 100 came from right across classes from 1970s to 2000s.

The day began in good Saturday mood with Sue Bridgewater speaking on Talent Wars – business lessons from football management; audience discussion on José Mourinho’s management at Chelsea could have occupied much of the following speakers’ time! We gained a fresh look at Strategic Customer Management with Nigel Piercy, and Michael Shulver ensured that the post–lunch ‘graveyard’ shift was anything but, with a Monty Python video introducing his subject of Inductive reasoning and performance management.

Nigel Sykes presented current work on the ‘DNA’ of entrepreneurial management teams, giving us intriguing insights into the mix of personal styles which equally complement and frustrate one another, but seem key to success. The ensuing coffee break conversations seemed to revolve around ‘which am I?’ and ‘which would I like to be?’ The presentations were closed by Harry Scarborough talking on the hot topic of Open innovation, challenging us to look beyond the competencies of our own organisations for innovative ideas and capabilities. The day finished with a buffet supper and tour of the new WBS facilities, in which not a little envy was expressed for current and future students!

If you have a passion for learning and honing your skills learned at WBS (no matter how recently or long ago) these Seminars are a fantastic opportunity. Watch out for the Open Day on 21 July and the Academic Update on 22 September.

Reviewed by Dr John W Burgoyne (DLMBA �00�–6) a New Business Innovation Manager with Oxford Instruments plc.

Is the person sitting opposite you at work a WBS graduate? If you would like to form a WBS ‘corporate family’ within your own company, or if you are already part of an informal network at work, then we want to hear from you. By accessing another part of the WBS Alumni Association in your own company, you will benefit from networking, relationship building with colleagues and peers, web resource via WBS and access to WBS academics. Activities can be as formal or informal as you wish and might include: online networking, internal email lists, drinks evenings, lunches, formal dinners and presentations from WBS faculty. Take advantage of the WBS network without even leaving your desk!

If you are keen to get involved in any of our groups or would like to find out more, please contact Caroline Hughese caroline.hughes@wbs.ac.uk or visit the website atw www.wbs.ac.uk/alumni/networking_groups.cfm

‘corporate families’

5th annual dinner

WBS academic update seminar

To view photos of this event online:w www.flickr.com/photos/wbs–ac–uk/

�5

Regional group meetings across the UK have gone with a swing as usual with regular events taking place in London (First Friday); Midlands; Oxford and the South West.

First Friday with a twist took place on 13 April at The Arndean Gallery for a champagne reception and private viewing of

contemporary Vietnamese fine art. Oc–Eo Art, established by WBS alumnus, Peter Quintana (MSc Business Management Systems 92–6) specialises in contemporary Asian fine art. Over 60 alumni and friends attended the spectacular exhibition. Our thanks go to Peter for the idea and the opportunity. The Terrace at Somerset House proved an extremely popular venue in June.

The popular and well attended spring series featured: Dr Peter Couch (MBA 1996–2000), Head of Strategy and Regulation, National Grid Wireless. Topic: Spectrum – the Developing Asset – can regulatory changes create new billion dollar global markets?

Professor Jan Mouritsen, Department of Operations Management, Copenhagen Business School. Topic: Intellectual Capital project implementation in a large engineering company

Yaver Abidi, Director of Business Analysis, Halcrow Group. Topic: 21st century challenges for a global professional services firm – a century of international adventurism and still learning

The autumn series will begin in October and details will be published shortly. w www.wbs.ac.uk/alumni/forthcoming.cfm

WBS forums

UK events review

�5

Our second seminar in the WBS–Detica City Series was on the theme of Financial Services. Our speakers included Dimitris Vougiouklis, from the Detica group with a talk entitled Unravelling Asset Manage-ment. We were also pleased to welcome WBS alumnus Guy Fraser–Sampson (DLMBA 1985–9) who spoke on Multi Asset Class Investment Strategy.

Once again we thank Simon Finnie (EXMBA 1999–2003), Principal Consultant at Detica, for hosting this successful event at Detica’s London offices.

�nd in City series

The UK dinner series was established for alumni who can’t usually make it to one of the regular regional group meetings, either because of distance or timings. The dinners have made a resounding start with excellent attendance and enthusiasm for more!

The 40th anniversary celebration programme began in Reading on 22 February with over 20 attendees and was followed by Leeds on 24 April with 14 alumni, with over 18 alumni attending the Milton Keynes evening on 15 May. The dinner in Cardiff on 26 June was also well received, co–hosted by Professor Howard Thomas, Dean of WBS and Caroline Hughes, Alumni Relations Executive.

The evenings start at 6.30pm for drinks followed by dinner at 7.00pm. A WBS faculty member or doctoral researcher co–hosts the event, together with staff from the Alumni Office. Venues will be advertised closer to the events and in 2007, dinners are still to take place in:

UK regional dinner series �007

The Telecoms group resumed its activities in April with a teleconference meeting on Mobile Pricing and Regulation presented by Professor Martin Cave, Director of the Centre for Management under Regulation at WBS. The presentation was very well received and further teleconference dates have been arranged for 7 September and 16 November.

All alumni SIGs are volunteer–led and meet in a variety of ways. SIGs exist in the following areas: Brand Management, Entrepreneurship, Public and Voluntary Sector Network, and Telecoms.

SIGs

Regional groups roundup

Manchester Southampton Edinburgh

4 September �8 September �0 October

Professor Jan Mouritsen

l to r: speakers Dimitris Vougiouklis and Guy Fraser–Sampsonwith host Simon Finnie

First Friday

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alumni news

�6

awards for researchCongratulations go to Professor Bob McGee (PhD 1982–6), Andreas School of Business, Barry University, Florida, USA, who recently received a Distinguished Research award for a paper presented at the Allied Academies Spring 2007 International Conference in Jacksonville, Florida, in the category of Accounting and Financial Studies.

Earlier in the year Bob received two awards from The International Academy of Business & Public Administration Disciplines for his research on Tax Evasion and Ethics: A comparative study of 33 countries and Antidumping, Business Ethics and International Relations.

new presidentThe appointment of Professor David Hunt (MSc Management & Business Studies 1970–1) as President of the Institute of Financial Accountants (IFA) was recently reported in Financial Accountant magazine.

The article entitled First among equals, celebrates David’s career and achievements: as UK representative on the International Federation of Accountants Education Committee, international training partner with Panel Kerr Forster, president of the Association of Accounting Technicians and principal of La Chasse Management Development Company, which he founded in 2002. He was also awarded the Everybody Counts Lifetime Achievement award in 2003 for his extensive charity work. w www.ifa.org.uk

all work and no playIn Midlands Business Insider magazine, an article entitled All work and no play, gets you an MBA, arguing the pros and cons of studying for an MBA, featured an interview with WBS alumnus Patrick McCourt (EMBA 2002–5), Senior Project Manager at DBK Back.

While highlighting the volume of work involved, Patrick ultimately concluded, ‘It’s like having a passport – a transferable qualification that’s generally recognised almost anywhere in business. And it changes your ambitions – I’ve had interviews for jobs I’d never even been considered for before or even considered myself.’

high profileBusiness MK recently profiled Sarah Deaves (MBA 1991–3) Chief Executive of private bank Coutts which opened an office in Milton Keynes last year. Sarah began

her banking career as a cashier for NatWest and from 1997 ran their co–branding division before moving two years later to head up NatWest Commercial Cards. She then became Managing Director, Own Brand Businesses, for the Royal Bank of Scotland, with responsibility for Lombard Direct and DirectLine Financial Services

Sarah joined Coutts as Chief Operating Officer in 2002 and became Chief Executive ten months later. Sarah is the first female to occupy the position in the 314 year history of the ‘Queen’s Bank’.

international allianceMinling Chen and Ross Glover (FMBA 2002–3) were married in a beautiful ceremony on a wine farm in Paarl, just outside Cape Town, on the 14 April 2007. Their Zimbabwean–Singaporean union truly reflects the international aspect of a Warwick MBA. The couple had their wedding in South Africa, followed by a celebration dinner in Singapore but not all on the same day! Their best man, Alastair Brown, was a fellow MBA classmate and several other MBA friends were there to share in their joy.

Both Minling and Ross are now back in London to begin married life after a month long ‘wedding world tour.’ We wish them every happiness.

Swapping high heels for hiking bootsChristine Bennett (EXMBA 1998–02) will undertake the trip of a lifetime to Peru to climb the Inca trail to Machu Picchu in October. She explains: ‘As a child I was fascinated by the story behind the hidden city tucked away high in the mountains. How did the Incas manage to build it with primitive technology and yet the ruins remain today and provide a fascinating insight into how they lived.’

The trek is part of an organised trip with Action Medical Research which pioneers ground–breaking medical techniques. Through their

‘Touching Tiny Lives’ programme they have developed innovative cures and support for tiny babies such as the incubator. As she was herself a premature baby who benefited from the marvels of medical science, this is Christine’s way of saying thank you and giving something back to a worthy organisation. w www.action.org.uk

�7�7

alumni news

PhD for SheilaCongratulations to Dr Sheila Marsh (DLMBA 1988–92) who gained her PhD from Lancaster University last December. According to Sheila, ‘I did a part–time PhD while working in my own consulting business in the public sector – Opus Training Development & Design. My research was a study of my own work situation focused on the ‘feminine’ in consulting.’ w www.opustrg.co.uk

golden linkThe Sofia Echo recently profiled Nick Saunders (MBA 1994–5) CE0, Golden Pages, Bulgaria, under the headline From gold mines to Golden Pages.

Having graduated in chemistry and pharmacology, Nick initially began work at a gold mine in Australia. Back in the UK he joined a small pharmaceutical company where he discovered he loved management and was good at it. After spending another year backpacking in South America he

returned to the UK in 1994 to study for an MBA at WBS, where he also met his future wife.

Nick worked for seven years at Yell Group plc and was then given the chance to launch Golden Pages in Bulgaria, and landed in Sofia in June 2006. According to Nick, ‘It was a great opportunity and a challenge.’ w tinyurl.com/2r2rh7

top awardBelated congratulations to Commander Jo Kaye (MBA 1990–1) Metropolitan Police Service Central Operations, who was awarded the Queen’s Police Medal (QPM) in the 2007 New Year’s Honours list.

Jo joined the Metropolitan Police in 1981 and was promoted to Commander in November 2000. Initially posted with responsibility for south–east London, he transferred to Pan London Security post– 9/11, becoming Head of Roads Policing in 2002. In 2005, he assumed responsibility for firearms matters and the Specialist Firearms command, but this year has expanded that portfolio to include Diplomatic and Parliamentary Security.

Secretary of the ACPO Emergency Procedures Committee, Jo is the national lead on Humanitarian Assistance in Emergency, and a member of the national ACPO committee for the Police use of Firearms.

AppointmentsStefan Barden (MBA 1991–2) appointed Chief Executive of Northern Foods.

Martin Clark (DLMBA 1991–5) promoted to the rank of Assistant Chief Fire Officer by the West Midlands Fire Service.

David Coppock (DLMBA 1985–90) appointed International Trade Director for UK Trade & Investment for the North–East region.

Tim Devitt (MBA 2001–2) joined Rothschild Diamonds Ltd, following 15 years at Diamond Trading Company.

Claude Sarfo (MBA 1997–8) elected onto the International Management Board of the Association of MBAs (AMBA).

Vina Patel (MBA 1998–9) appointed Director of Institutional Equity Sales at Haywood Securities UK Limited, a subsidiary of Haywood Securities Inc, a leading Canadian independent investment dealer.

Paul Kehoe (MBA 1989–90) takes over the controls at Bristol International Airport as Chief Executive.

Daniel Sailland (MBA 2004–5) became Senior Administrator for the Mount Currie Band (Lil’wat Nation) based in Pemberton, British Columbia.

Chris Sturgess (DLMBA 2000–4) joined Colemont Insurance Brokers as Finance Director.

David Whitmore (BSc Accounting & Finance 1977–80) appointed Group Chief Executive Officer of global management consulting firm Compass

a bridge too farProfessor Edward Ng (DLMBA 1993–01) is a professional architect who teaches at the Department of Architecture, Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is actively involved in the charitable project ‘A Bridge Too Far’ which helps villages in China by building safe and durable bridges.

In Maosi Village, Gansu, children had to cross the river every day on their way to school across a temporary bridge made of mud and tree logs. This fragile bridge would be washed away during summer months and students were forced to venture across the river, resulting in injuries and accidents.

This inspired Edward to design a permanent bridge for the villagers. After years of planning

and fundraising, a group of enthusiastic professionals and dozens of Hong Kong and mainland university students travelled to the Maosi Village in 2002. In intense heat and with the help of the local villagers, it took only six days to finish building the Wu Zhi Qiao. This project has won prestigious awards including the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) International Award.

Professor Ng and colleagues established the Ui Zhi Qiao Charitable Foundation in April 2007 to raise funds to continue the projects. w www.bridge2china.org

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WBS branded merchandise now available online

you can also buy t-shirts, polo shirts, fleeces, & sweatshirts

…just the thing to be seen in!

Teddy in Paris with Peter Phillips (BSc Accounting & Financial Analysis 1978–81)member of the WBS Founders’ Association

Where will you take Teddy? Send your images to alumni@wbs.ac.uk

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