Aluminate October 2010 p01 NEW · the School moved to its new home. The School is now based at Buccleuch Place, just 100 metres from the old building on Bristo Square, but the School

Follow theright tweet

REALISE THE FULL POTENTIALOF SOCIAL MEDIA >>>

SEE PAGE 20

State of playA FUN WAY TO IMPROVE

BUSINESS PERFORMANCE>>>>

SEE PAGE 28

Fast laneACCELERATING PERFORMANCE

THROUGH CONSULTING >>>>

SEE PAGE 18

ALSO INSIDE>>>>NEWS>>>>EVENTS>>>>ALUMNI GROUPS>>>>SCHOOL SERVICES FOR ALUMNI>>>>

NEW FACILITIES>>>>RESEARCH>>>>WHERE ARE THEY NOW?>>>>WEDDINGS>>>>NEW ARRIVALS>>>>

OCTOBER 2010The magazine for postgraduate alumni

Aluminate

ALUMNI COMMUNITY NOW INCLUDES MSc AND PhD, AS WELL AS MBA ALUMNI>>>>

Aluminate October 2010_p01 NEW 29/9/10 10:36 Page 1

2 | aluminate | october 2010 www.business-school.ed.ac.uk

editor’s comment

Welcome to October’s edition ofAluminate, the first published sincethe School moved to its new home.

The School is now based at Buccleuch Place,just 100 metres from the old building onBristo Square, but the School has a verydifferent feel and atmosphere, which is all forthe better. Other than the top-class facilities,the main benefit is that the School now hasthe space to house all staff and postgraduatestudents in one building, allowing all to mixand connect far more easily. I hope many ofyou take the opportunity to visit us in ournew home. Please get in touch with theAlumni Office if you are in Edinburgh soon and would like a tour.

Making connections, at least virtual ones, is very pertinent to this edition of Aluminate,which focuses on the phenomena of socialmedia (SM) and what they mean for how welive and do business, both now and in the

future. Many of you are already experts in using SM – whether it be for professionalor personal purposes. Turn to page 24 to readabout four alumni who are trail-blazingthrough the SM landscape. And for those ofyou who are novices to making connectionsonline, there is a great guide on getting startedwith LinkedIn from University alumnus ChrisBrown on page 23.

Some of you are telling us that theeconomic climate is still tough, with mostsectors and markets still suffering. Twoalumni working in consultancy give verydifferent accounts of how they have turnedthe economic crisis into an opportunity andtaken their careers onto a new level. Readabout Gerry Rose’s and Arnar Palsson’suplifting experiences on pages 18 and 26.

Conducting excellent academic research is a core function of the Business School, and is often at the heart of current businesspractice. On page 32, read a profile ofProfessor Abhay Abhyankar, a leadingresearch academic who has his feet firmly inthe corporate world. And if your company is interested in establishing links with aresearch institution then alumnus IanMurphy, of Edinburgh Research andInnovation, tells you how to make the mostof that relationship to deliver what yourbusiness needs on page 33.

And for those of you with a playful streak,read about Dr Jim Paton and Lego, the latesttool to help businesses approach problemsmore creatively – see page 28.

Lastly, I am pleased to announce that thenew Alumni website is now live so there areeven more ways to keep connected with theSchool and each other. You can read aboutkey features of the website on page 16 and view the live site at www.business-school.ed.ac.uk/alumni

I hope you enjoy the issue. Let us knowwhat you think and please do keep in touch.

Jacquie RorieEditor

‘FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO ARE NOVICES TO MAKINGCONNECTIONS ONLINE, THERE IS A GREAT GUIDE ONGETTING STARTED WITH LINKEDIN FROM UNIVERSITYALUMNUS CHRIS BROWN’Jacquie Rorie

Capitalising on connections

If you no longer wish to receive future issues of thismagazine, please contact the Alumni Manager: University of Edinburgh Business School, 29 BuccleuchPlace, Edinburgh EH8 9JS. Tel: +44 (0) 131 650 9840 Email: [email protected] views expressed in Aluminate are not necessarily

those of the University of Edinburgh Business School.Magazine design by Connect Communications.

The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body,registered in Scotland, with registration numberSC005336.

Aluminate October 2010_p02-03 29/9/10 10:37 Page 2

SCHOOL NEWSHead of School report 4News 5Great space to learn 10Events 12

GLOBAL CONNECTIONSAlumni groups 14Mentors needed 14Where in the world- Toronto 15

ALUMNI SERVICESNew website and reps 16

SPECIAL FEATURESTop speed 18Life as a world-classconsultant

Join the flock 20The many opportunities presented by social media

Be the strongest link 23Tips on LinkedIn

Tales of tweets, postsand links 24Alumni share advice and experiences of social media

PROFESSIONALDEVELOPMENTCrisis response 26Consulting in a tough environment

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENTPlay to win 28Why play is a serious business

RESEARCHRethinking retirement 30Workforce ageing issues

Watch out 31Two projects chart thechanging audit landscape

Grounded in practice 32How research givesmeaning to companies

Bring ideas to life 33Making the most out of arelationship between acompany and university

PEOPLEWhere are they now? 34Wedding bells 37New arrivals 38

www.business-school.ed.ac.uk october 2010 | aluminate | 3

‘YOU CANDISCOVER MORE ABOUT A PERSON IN AN HOUR OF PLAY THAN IN A YEAR OFCONVERSATION’Dr Jim PatonSee page 28

18

28

contents

20

‘SOCIAL MEDIA IS NOT ANALTERNATIVE MARKETINGCHANNEL NOW, IT IS ANESSENTIAL ONE, BUT STILLVERY FEW BUSINESSESHAVE A SOCIAL MEDIASTRATEGY’James Campbell. See pages 20-22



head of school report

Moving into an exciting new era

I ’m writing this in September 2010. The new academic year has just begun and Ihave to say that it feels very different from

previous years.The biggest and most obvious change is that

we are starting the year in our new building –you’ll find a piece on the building on pages 10and 11. This has made a huge difference to theatmosphere in the School, for a number ofreasons. All staff are now in the same building– this makes a big difference to ease ofcommunication.

The quality of the environment is great –the amount that has been achieved with theresources available is a tribute to thearchitects, the contractors and to theUniversity’s Estates and Buildings Division.The building is light and airy; there is lots ofpublic space that makes it easy for people tomingle and interact and the environment feelsvery professional.

The facilities for teaching and group workare far better than we had before, andconsolidate the work on the branding andpositioning of the School that has been taking place over the last three years. The reaction of the incoming students hasbeen very positive.

There are still contractors around the placedealing with snagging and completing somefinal pieces of work and the externallandscaping is still some way off completion,but we’re in and the building is working well.The main contractor was actually due tofinish in May, but various delays meant that

the building was not finally handed over to usuntil the third week in August, so there wassome pretty frantic work in late August andearly September!

We had a big welcome party for theincoming postgraduate students in mid-September which was a great kick-off to the year.

August and September also saw the arrivalof 12 new academic staff to the School,following a successful period of recruitmentearlier in the year. Much of this expansion isdue to the development of new post-graduateprogrammes and growth in revenues fromexisting programmes. The two new marketingMScs have recruited very well, and MBAnumbers are rising strongly (up around 30 percent on the period 2008-10), when theydropped back following the introduction ofthe GMAT requirement.

Finally, I’m very pleased to say a newfinancial regime for the Business School wasapproved by University Court in May andcame into operation on 1 August 2010. Thiswill allow us to run the School in a morebusiness-like way, and is an important step inensuring that the School is appropriatelyresourced in the years ahead.

In the course of 2011, we will be runningvarious events for alumni so you can see ournew facilities – I look forward to seeing you at these in the near future.

Nick OliverHead of School

‘THE FACILITIESFOR TEACHINGAND GROUPWORK ARE FARBETTER... ANDCONSOLIDATETHE WORK ON THE...POSITIONINGOF THESCHOOL THATHAS BEENTAKING PLACEOVER THE LASTTHREE YEARS’ Nick Oliver


www.business-school.ed.ac.uk

news

New buildingcomes to lifeAUGUST SAW STAFF MOVE INTO THE BUSINESSSCHOOL’S NEWLY REFURBISHED FACILITIES

WANT TO KNOW MORE?See page 10 for more information and images of the new school bulding.

october 2010 | aluminate | 5

In August, the School relocated to itsnew home (the former Adam FergusonBuilding) on Buccleuch Place at the

heart of the University campus. The move is the culmination

of a significant investment by theUniversity into the development of the Business School.

This state-of-the-art building, housingall school staff, contains eight lecturetheatres, multiple syndicate rooms, anexecutive education suite, student onlineresource and study centre, The Hub, acafé and significant flexible space forstudents and staff. The new studentintake arrived in mid September and,

for the first time, the hectic inductionschedule included a welcome party for all postgraduate students as the new building has the space to house all 400 postgraduate students for one event.

The evening had a ‘festivalatmosphere’ with a variety of liveentertainment, including jugglers, a pipe and drum band, a magician and a caricaturist.

In addition to a drinks and canapés reception, Head of School Nick Oliver gave a brief speech to all the new students and welcomed them to the School.

ABOVE: The Head of School takes part in card tricks with a magician during a welcome party for new students

Builders put finishing touchesto the new building


news


BUSINESS SCHOOLADVISORY BOARDMEMBER TO CO-RUN WORLD’SBIGGEST MUTUALFUND MANAGER

Visiting ProfessorRonald O’Hanley, amember of theBusiness School’sAdvisory Board, willundertake one of twotop roles in runningFidelity Investments,the world’s largestmutual-fund manager.

Fidelity Investmentsnamed RonaldO’Hanley and AbigailJohnson to top rolesafter splittingresponsibility forrunning the company.

Abigail Johnson, thedaughter of ChairmanEdward C. Johnson III,will oversee allcustomer and client-focused businesses as president of thepersonal, workplaceand institutional unit.

Ronald O’Hanley,who is joining themutual-fund managerfrom Bank of New YorkMellon Corp – where he oversaw moneymanagement – willbecome president ofasset managementand corporateservices.

Ronald O’Hanleyhas been a member of the BusinessSchool’s advisoryboard since 2004.

The School AdvisoryBoard consists ofleading members ofthe internationalbusiness communityand exists to provideindependent, externaland commercially-orientated advice tothe School.

Following the success of the Carbon Masters’presentation in Copenhagen, Martin Siegret andYoung Dawkins (Vice Principal, Development)

have commissioned three members of the CarbonManagement Society to produce promotional filmsto raise awareness about the climate change-relatedresearch undertaken by the University, withparticular reference to the newly establishedEdinburgh Centre on Climate Change (ECCC).

James O’Toole, Gyles Scott-Hayward and JustinWhelan collaborated with director Tim Maguire (a university alumnus) to produce the two films.Filming was funded by two private donors – alumniof the University – who are supporters of the ECCC.

The first film is a visual representation of apoem entitled Imagine the Opposite written byacclaimed poet Elspeth Murray specifically for theproject. The film features a number of membersfrom the Carbon Management Society to illustratethe commitment of Edinburgh University studentsin encouraging positive behaviour, actions andattitudes regarding climate change.

The second film is the official ECCC promotional

SOCIETY COMMISSIONS TWO PROMOTIONAL FILMSCOVERING UNIVERSITY RESEARCH ON CLIMATE CHANGE

Carbonmanagement to hit screens

every three or five years. The School waslast accredited five years ago.

In addition to EQUIS, the School alsoholds accreditation by the Associationof MBAs (AMBA) and is currentlypursuing accreditation by theAssociation to Advance CollegiateSchools of Business (AACSB).

Few UK business schools holdaccreditation from all three schemes.

Marketing and CommunicationsManager Audrey Healy said: ‘Withambitious plans to become one of the leading Business Schools in

The School recently celebratedreaccreditation by EQUIS, the leadinginternational business schoolaccreditation system. Only 122institutions around the globe have been awarded EQUIS status.

The EQUIS Scheme aims to raise thequality of management educationworldwide.

To qualify, the School underwent arigorous review process includingevaluation by a peer review team ofdeans from accredited schools. The re-accreditation process takes place

‘LESS THAN ONEPER CENT OFSCHOOLSWORLDWIDEHAVE TRIPLEACCREDITATION.THIS IS ANIMPORTANT STEPIN POSITIONINGTHE SCHOOL’Audrey Healy

Three is magic number for top q



news

WANT TO KNOW MORE?The films can be viewed atwww.climatechangecentre.org.uk

film, which outlines the complexity of climate changeand the need for an integrated approach in resolving theissue. It also highlights past Edinburgh Universityscholars who have changed the world and sends aninspiring message of hope – that such talent iswidespread in the University, and through the ECCCthe greatest minds on climate change will be broughttogether to continue in this prestigious tradition.

This film has been a catalyst for clarifying the brandand ethos of the ECCC. It has since been premiered atthe official launch of the ECCC in Hong Kong duringthe international conference, Climate Change, Finance

and Investment 2010, as well as to an audience ofalumni, supporters and other stakeholdersin Edinburgh and London. It will also be

used as promotional content both at eventsin which the ECCC partakes and online

through the university and ECCC website.

Europe, we see thisprocess as reflectingnot just our longhistory of businessteaching butendorsing everythingthat we do.

‘Less than one percent of schools worldwide have tripleaccreditation. This is an important stepin positioning the School.’

The School has passed the first phaseof the process and expects to bereviewed by the AACSB board in 2012.

MSC SCHOLARSHIPS:• Martin Currie scholarship:

full fees (£18,150) and aninternship in Shanghai and Edinburgh

• Santander Carbon Scholarship: £5,000

• University of Edinburgh Masters Scholarship: £5,000 fee reduction

• Global Scholarship: £3,000• Homecoming Scholarship:

£5,000• Chevening Scholarship: up to

three quarters of the fees• Scotland’s Saltire School

Scholarship: £2,000

MBA SCHOLARSHIPS:• Two Calum Miller Scholarships:

£5,000 each• Victor Lowenstein

Scholarship: £5,000• Gordon McCulloch

Scholarship: £5,000• Five Santander Scholarships:

£5,000 each• Five Director’s Scholarships:

£4,000 each• Three Leadership Scholarships:

£10,000 each

Postgraduate Scholarshipsawarded for 2010...

WANT TO KNOW MORE?Visit the website at www.business-school.ed.ac.uk


p quality teaching

In only a matter of a few shortyears, carbon management hasmoved from the periphery to theheart of big business. TheBusiness School’s new CarbonFinance MSc is the world’s firstprogramme dedicated toprofessionals in the carbonmarket and climate changeinvestment field.

The syllabus uniquely focuseson the business opportunities and financial flows driven bysociety’s response to climate

change (carbon finance).This MSc is a high-level,

intensive exploration of a subjectcrucial to the future of businessand, of course, the planet itself.Very few business schools in the world have the same depth of expertise in carbonmanagement.

By graduation, students willunderstand the key drivers behindthe carbon economy, the financialimperative and the regulatoryframework in which it operates.

This will provide students with the qualifications and expertise to secure positions in specialistconsultancies, with financialanalysts, as carbon managers in major organisations or inhelping to set the agenda atgovernmental level.

CARBON FINANCE MSc ‘FIRST OF A KIND’ IN THE WORLD


news


BEST YEAR EVERFOR SOURCINGIN-COMPANYPROJECTS FORSTUDENTS

The Business Schoolhas had its mostsuccessful year ever ofsourcing in-companystudent projects.

Many postgraduateshave to complete aproject as part of theirdegree course. Someof these are companysponsored projectsand involve studentsanalysing a businessproblem within thecompany.

In 2010, more than70 projects weresourced in total with arange of partnersincluding StandardLife, Aberdeen AssetManagement, ScottishWidows InvestmentPartnership, StateStreet, Cornelian AssetManagement, RIACapital Markets andBarclays Wealth.

Projects included areview of the impact ofcharity investment,analysis of Africanequities, an overviewof venture capitaltrusts, public equityversus private equityand mutual fundperformance versusthe index.

These projects notonly give studentsgreat exposure to the realities of thebusiness world butthey also allow theSchool to strengthenties with corporatepartners.

If you are interestedin sourcing a studentto conduct a project inyour company, [email protected]

The Edinburgh Festival may be over foranother summer but the University ofEdinburgh Business School has teamedup with Internship Scotland to makesure that visiting internationalstudents have a unique festivalexperience in 2011.

Internship Scotland providesinternational students with a summerprogramme offering internships inbusiness, arts and other areas ofacademic interest. In July 2011, up to40 students will take part in a jointprogramme between the BusinessSchool and Internship Scotland that

will allow students to take a numberof courses in strategy, marketing,finance and accounting, operationsmanagement and human resourcemanagement given by leadingacademics at the Business School.

These will be supplemented bypresentations from key figures in thearts industry in Edinburgh and beyond.

The students will also gainexperience at the Fringe Festivalthrough internships withinternational entertainment andproduction companies, stagemanagement, public relations,

marketing and venue managementcompanies.

The Fringe Festival is the world’slargest arts festival and one of severaltaking place in Edinburgh eachAugust. In 2009, the Fringe consistedof a record-breaking 2,098 showsgiving a total of 34,265 performancesin 265 venues.

In May 2010, the University Court approved a newfinancial regime for the Business School. This regimecame into operation on 1 August 2010.

Under it, the normal University ‘top slice’ will bereplaced by a system in which gross income accrues tothe School and the School pays a charge per staff andstudent capita, or per m2 in the case of facilities.

This change will give the School much greatervisibility of its finances, increase its retained income andis advantageous as premium-fee programmes grow.

The School will also make a contribution to the

University as a percentage of turnover over and abovethat paid for specific support services – a bit like aroyalty payment for membership of the University and use of its brand and identity.

The increased retained income that follows from this will be invested in three main areas – faculty and improved research performance,enhancing the student experience and improvingoutreach and profile.

The change followed a series of fact-finding visits to other leading business schools by members of the School and senior staff from the University.

‘The change to our financial regime representsanother important step towards realising the hugepotential that exists in the School,’ said Nick Oliver,Head of School.

New financial regime for School

A UNIQUE FESTIVAL EXPERIENCE...

WANT TO KNOW MORE?Anyone interested in finding outmore about the programmeshould [email protected]

‘THE CHANGE REPRESENTS ANOTHER STEP TOWARDS REALISING THE HUGEPOTENTIAL THAT EXISTS IN THE SCHOOL’Nick Oliver, Head of School

8 | aluminate | october 2010



news

After 20 years of teaching, Bristo Square held its lastgraduation celebration for MBA students on 1 July. Infuture, a joint graduation party will be held for allpostgraduate students in the new Business School.

Carlos Isoard of the MBA programme was awarded theJohn McFarlane Prize for Leadership at the graduation.Students are chosen on the basis of their contribution tothe School and for demonstrating leadership amongthose in their MBA class. The prize is awarded from

funds donated by John McFarlane,former Chief Executive of ANZ

Banking Group and Non-ExecutiveDirector of the Royal Bank ofScotland. He is a MA graduate ofthe University of Edinburgh.

From TV advertisementsand the supermarketaisle, to the internet andpeer trends, there is agrowing presence ofmarketing forcesdirected at andinfluencing children and young people.

How should theseforces be understood,and what means ofresearch or dialogue isrequired to assessthem? A new book,edited by Professor

David Marshall,Professor of Marketingand ConsumerBehaviour and Head ofthe Business School’sMarketing Group,examines thesequestions in depth.

The book, publishedby Sage, is a collectionof research thatexamines the manyfacets of marketing to children.

The contributors tothis collection evaluate

the child as an activeconsumer, and offer avaluable rethinking ofthe discussions andliterature on the subject.

Key subjects coveredinclude factors thatdrive children asconsumers, howadvertising campaignsand branding affectchildren and howchildren themselvesunderstand andevaluate theseinfluences.


Congratulations to class

LEFT: Carlos Isoardwon the prize for

leadership

| ABOVE: Some of the Full Time Class of 2009

THE UNIVERSITY’S OLD BUILDING HOSTS ITS FINALGRADUATION CELEBRATION AND PRIZE GIVING

PROFESSOR EXAMINES MARKETING FORCES FOR KIDS


new building


The Adam Ferguson Building was built in thelate 1960s by designer Sir Robert Mathew.

The current façade replaced a previousGeorgian building. The building is now listedand is regarded as an important piece of latemodern design. After 40 years of intensive useit had become worn out internally, the externalfabric was in poor condition and it no longermet user expectations in terms of thermalcomfort and flexibility.

The redevelopment sought to rejuvenate thebuilding by expanding its capabilities as ateaching facility and making its interiorwelcoming. Key changes include the addition ofnew floor space within a roof top extension, anew entrance pavilion, making lift, stair andcirculation routes obvious for users, and thecomplete renewal of all heating, ventilation,

lighting and IT systems. New building systemsare designed on sustainable principles withnatural ventilation, rainwater harvesting andthe linking of the building to the University’scentral combined heat and power plant.

With the use of glazed screens, glassbalustrades, open spaces at corridor ends and anew light well in the existing building, severalopportunities have been exploited to createvisual links to the outside. The new extensionsare intended to provide an openness andgenerosity previously lacking and new teachingspaces are configured to facilitate different typesof teaching. We hope that these new facilitieswill all be conducive to a re-invigoratedBusiness School.

Dermot Patterson LDN Architects

HEAD OF SCHOOL’S NICK OLIVERINTRODUCES THE BUSINESSSCHOOL’S FANTASTIC NEWBUILDING FOR STAFF ANDSTUDENTS TO ENJOY

Architect’s perspective on facilities

Great s

The Adam FergusonBuilding is a primeexample of 1960s

architecture and is a listed building

Did you know?

Our new building has now been brought to life, with all staff and students nowhoused in one magnificent building. For the last few years we have beenworking to give the School a distinct identity as a premium Business School,

unmistakably rooted in Edinburgh. Essential to this is a vibrant intellectual community, comprising academic and

professional support staff, students and colleagues from the world of practice. Thenew building delivers the facilities to do this and positions the School as a true hub for research, learning and corporate engagement.

The design places a big emphasis on public space to encourage the interactions that are part and parcel of a vibrant community.

I want to thank our alumni for their input, support and enthusiasm as we transition into our new home. I hope you take the opportunity to visit us in our new home.



new building

Watch out for the Business School’s 12-month programme of events to celebrate its new building under the banner ‘Building Potential’.

Our annual programme of debates will be expanded this yearwith additional high-calibre guest speakers.

We aim to officially open the new building in March. This willinclude a formal ribbon cutting and unveiling of a commemorative

plaque. There will be a one-day Business School conference withplenary tracks across our areas of expertise.

In addition we will host a suite of networking events for CEOs and business owners. This year we also launch an inauguralalumni weekend.

For more information, contact the alumni office on 0131 650 9840or [email protected]

LOOK OUT FOR CELEBRATION EVENTS

space to learn

Aerial shot from the 1960s (Bristo Square without the Square)The

buildingthroughthe years Along came the 1960s with a

redevelopment plan

Construction work first time around tocreate the Adam Ferguson Building


Director of CorporateDevelopment, Simon Earp,and Naomi Allum of theInternational Office visitedDelhi, Mumbai and Bangaloreto meet potential students ofthe Business School and toestablish collaborations withIndian companies.

During the visit in May,Simon and Naomi met withstudents interested inpostgraduate programmesand held informationsessions. These were alsoattended by alumni of theSchool who generouslyshared their expertise of theSchool and Edinburgh.

In Mumbai, Simon met withthe President of the FinancialTechnologies KnowledgeManagement Company,which develops strategies and solutions in knowledgemanagement across themajor asset markets.

He also undertook a visit toCoca Cola Enterprises inDelhi to discuss potentialinternships and projects.

The School plans to develop long-termcollaborations with a number of companies and organisations in India and will be making afollow-up visit in November.

Linking up in India

events

12 | aluminate | October 2010 www.business-school.ed.ac.uk

The new academic year kicks offwith yet another fantastic range ofspeaker events, all of which areopen to alumni.

The Business School continuesto collaborate with keyprofessional bodies and instituteson events, including the CharteredFinancial Analyst Institutes (CFA)and the Chartered Institute ofBankers in Scotland (CIoBS).

John Kay, economist, journalistand author, will be speaking about“regaining trust in the bankingsector” on 4 May 2011.

The School will also be hostinga joint event with the Institute of

Chartered Accountants inScotland and Sir David Tweedie,Chair of the InternationalAccounting Standards Board andoften described as “the world’smost important accountant”,returns to present on the issuessurrounding the future ofinternational accountingstandards.

The School’s partnership with Santander continues, andtheir CEO UK, Antonio HortaOsario, will be speaking on 2 February 2011.

A number of themed eventswill be taking place over the

TOP TALENTS SIGN ON FOR CLUB

Entrepreneurs are a busy bunch and theSchool’s E-Club is noexception. In the spring it teamed up with theCarbon ManagementSociety to hold a GreenEntrepreneurship panel,featuring speakers from

Pavegen Systems,Aquamarine Power, andCO2DeepStore. ProfessorMarco Protano helpedclub members build theirown strong personalbrands and at only tenyears old, our youngestspeaker, Gregor

Campbell, taught us howto network fearlessly.

Over the summer, theclub won a Small ProjectGrant from theEdinburgh Fund to createa unified portal forentrepreneurship newsand resources at theuniversity. The club willbe working on that thisyear to help studentsnavigate all theassistance available.

Most recently, it hasbeen delighted towelcome a new

Entrepreneur InResidence, Heidi Roizen,from Silicon Valley, on11 November. Having runa VC firm and foundedstart-ups includingT/Maker Company (anearly PC softwarecompany) andSkinnySongs, Heidibrings with her a wealthof experience to offer E-Club. Heidi joins otherEntrepreneurs inResidence, Gavin Donand George Mackintosh,who will all be offering

E-Club members one-on-one sessionsthroughout the year.

The club has a stellarline-up of speakers forthe autumn, and itwelcomes all alumni and

CLIMATE CHANGE, BANKING TRUST ANDINTERNATIONAL ACCOUNTING STANDARDSARE ALL UP FOR DEBATE AS SCHOOL KICKSOFF NEW SERIES OF EVENTS

First-classcollectionof speakers

| ABOVE: Heidi Roizen

Simon Earp using local transport in India


www.business-school.ed.ac.uk October 2010 | aluminate | 13

events

autumn, including the ClimateChange Series, which aims toshowcase a number of speakerspresenting on the latestdevelopments in climate change.

The Spring Strategy Seriesincludes lectures from the likes ofIan McCaig of lastminute.com,Nick Horner, the CEO of ScottishPower and BryanDonaghey, the Managing Directorof Diageo in Scotland.

The School will be running twospeaker series focusing on theentrepreneur. The ArchangelSeries returns after a successfulpremiere last year, to give an

updated account of the archangelinvestment landscape.

The new series, Meet theEntrepreneur, held jointly withMBM Commercial, gives alumniand students the opportunity tohear from entrepreneurs who will share their insights on howthey founded and developed their business.

In May, Dr Duncan Bury and JaneBuick gave a fascinating presentationto more than 80 alumni at theBusiness School on TransformationalThinking and Thinking Harder. Through their company, Miascape,Duncan and Jane specialise insupporting transformation inorganisations.

In the session, they gave anoverview on the importance ofchallenging existing mental models,

and gave their take on why themajority of organisational changeinitiatives fail despite the bestintentions of everyone involved.

Duncan and Jane have recentlypublished a book on the subjectcalled Thinking Harder.

They published an article on thekey tenets of their philosophy and the personal journey that led them there in the April 2010 edition of Aluminate.

Miascape presentation givesplenty of food for thought

Every year, alumni are invited back to the School to share theirpersonal experiences of the industry they work in for the

benefit of current MBA and MSc students who areconsidering different career paths.

We are currently looking for alumni who haveexperience of the finance, consultancy, energy ormarketing sectors and who would be able to spare an

hour to be part of a panel of alumni from the same sector.

friends to join. A fewhighlights include:• Wednesday 20 October: SantanderPitching Competition, withone E-Club member winning£1000 on the night for a new business idea.• Monday 1 November:Mark Fahy, London StockExchange, on how companies

list and raise finance incapital markets (joint eventwith the Economics Society).• Wednesday 11November: Heidi Roizen,Silicon Valley VC andguest Entrepreneur InResidence, will share some of heradventures.

ALUMNI GET CONNECTED VIRTUALLY

Save thedate

The Business School’s first Alumni ReunionWeekend will be held

28-30 July 2011. For programme and

booking details see page 17

Help needed at seriesof industry sessions

WANT TO KNOW MORE?If you are interested in taking part please [email protected]

WANT TO KNOW MORE?For information on dates and venue and to reserve aplace for any of the above, visit www.business-school.ed.ac.uk/alumni

WANT TO KNOW MORE?For a full listing of autumn events, visit our newwebsite www.business-school.ed.ac.uk/eclubYou can also join Edinburgh Entrepreneurship Club on LinkedIn or Facebook.

In July, more than 40 alumniof the Business School andSchool of Informaticsattended a presentation onLinkedIn and the art of virtualnetworking at the Royal ArtsSociety in London.

Chris Brown, EnterpriseRelationship Manager atLinkedIn and also an alumnusof the Informatics School, gave a lively overview of LinkedIn with sound advice for both individuals and companies on how tomake the most of the virtual networking tool. The presentationwas followed by a wine and canapés reception with a few hardysouls continuing the party at the bar of the Institute ofContemporary Arts.

You can judge whether alumni (and the Alumni Team) madegood use of Chris’s expertise by joining the School’s LinkedIngroups and checking out alumni profiles at www.linkedin.com andsearching for University of Edinburgh Business School.

Alumni enjoyLinkedIn event


global connections


CONTACTS AROUND THE WORLDInternational alumni groups, set up by MBA alumni, are well established in anumber of countries. Where numbers are smaller, we also have key MBA alumnicontacts located in various areas of the world, or work in conjunction with otherUniversity of Edinburgh alumni groups.

We are keen to extend these groups to MSc and PhD alumni. If you areinterested in getting involved, or if you would like to make contact with alumni in countries not listed below, please contact the Alumni Manager on [email protected] who can help with identifying appropriate contacts.

Argentina Rodrigo Salgado [email protected]

Australia Todd Booth [email protected]

Brazil Paulo Almeida [email protected]

Frankfurt Ralph Rudolph [email protected]

Ghana George Adjei [email protected]

Greece Giorgos Gerakakis [email protected]

Panos Georgakopoulos [email protected]

Iceland Oli Klemensson [email protected]

Einar Skulason [email protected]

Sigurbjorn Gunnarsson [email protected]

Rebekka Valsdottir [email protected]

India Amrit Singh [email protected]

Indonesia Handoko Bayumurti [email protected]

Japan Eiro Taniguchi [email protected]

Madrid Charlie Wilson [email protected]

Malaysia Sanjay Saigal [email protected]

Munich Markus Geisenberger [email protected]

Claus Doerfler [email protected]

Shanghai Martin Jensen [email protected]

South Africa Yoni Titi [email protected]

Singapore Jay Jayaseelan [email protected]

Switzerland Charles Barber [email protected]

Markus Kuenzler [email protected]

Gian Plattner [email protected]

Yannick Pottier [email protected]

Etienne Rumo [email protected]

Thailand Vishnu Somboonpeti [email protected]

Toronto Josh Gillespie [email protected]

FORTHCOMING EVENT

EUROPEAN ALUMNI DINNER IN BRUSSELSFollowing on from the success of thefirst European Alumni Dinner inDecember 2009, the University will beholding the second dinner onWednesday 17 November 2010.

The Dinner will be hosted jointly by

The University of Edinburgh and TheEdinburgh University Brussels Societyand will be held at the historic CercleRoyal Gaulois in Brussels. Furtherdetails will be announced shortly, butto register your interest, [email protected]

The launch of the Toronto CareerConnections programme is finallyunder way. Career Connections has

been established in response to thepresent difficult economic climate andthe particularly difficult employment

market for fresh graduates. It is focused on using theBusiness School’s alumni network as well as the networkof the University at large to provide assistance topresent students and fresh graduates who are looking toembark on their careers.

We are in the fortunate position of having memberswho work in many different industry sectors and whohave a great deal of experience. Some club membershave volunteered to provide direct advice and supportto students and recent graduates to help with theircareer development.

Alumni offer advice and information based on their personal experience of industry trends andcompany culture.

The roll-out of the programme involved a targetedemail campaign over the summer of 2010 to thosestudents and recent graduates from the greater Torontoarea. The programme is also described on theUniversity’s Careers Services website. When a studentcontacts the University’s Careers Service and indicatestheir interest, they are given guidance on how to

Needed: mJOSH GILLESPIE, MBA ALUMNUSAND LEADER OF THE CANADIANALUMNI GROUP, GIVES AN UPDATEON AN INNOVATIVE ALUMNI-LEDINITIATIVE IN TORONTO

| ABOVE: Guido Picus loves the beaches of Aruba



global connections

: mentors in Toronto

SOME CLUBMEMBERS HAVEVOLUNTEERED TO PROVIDEDIRECT ADVICEAND SUPPORT TO STUDENTSAND RECENTGRADUATES TOHELP WITH THEIR CAREERDEVELOPMENTJosh Gillespie

structure their thoughts on their career aspirations priorto approaching the alumni.

The most typical questions students are likely to askof alumni are:• What do you find most rewarding/most difficultabout your work? • How did you get your job?• Please describe your career path. • How did you make connections in a new city? • How does your job relate to your degree atEdinburgh? • What might you have done at Edinburgh to preparebetter for a career in your field?

WANT TO KNOW MORE?If you are interested in participating as a CareerConnections advisor, contact Josh [email protected] for more information.

• Can you recommend other individuals I should speakto who could provide further advice?

What the programme is not designed to do is be anemployment service setting up students with jobs.Students are also made aware that their alumni mentorsare pretty busy people themselves and will only be ableto help to an extent.

Guido Picus (MBA Class of 1999) is in Aruba

WHY ARE YOU LOCATED IN ARUBA?Kristjana and I set upexpandeer.com a year ago tohelp UK, US and Europeancompanies expand theiroperations in Latin America andvice versa, to help Latin Americancompanies target the US andEuropean markets. Aruba’scentral location is ideal as it’s ashort distance from our Latin

American development office in Quito, Ecuador and ourmarketing office in Miami. Mostof our work is project based andonline so we’re able to manageour staff and clients from anylocation. Also, I’m from Aruba soit’s great being back home afterten years working in London.

WHERE ARE YOU LIVING IN ARUBA?We live in the capital, Oranjestad,and about 10 minutes away from the beach.

WHAT DO YOU LIKE ABOUT THE PLACE?The weather, constant breeze,white sandy beaches and friendly Arubans.

HOW EASY WAS THERELOCATION?We’re still getting used to theisland lifestyle. The relocationitself was quite easy as I’m fromAruba and we had been visitingquite often. But setting up yourown business is always achallenge and a labour of love.

HOW DOES IT COMPARE TOLIFE IN THE UK?Compared with London, the paceis slower and we have ahealthier lifestyle. There is nopollution, tube to catch orLondon drizzle! I do miss meetingfriends and colleagues at the pubafter work for the occasional pintand greasy kebab.

IS IT A PLACE TO PUT DOWN ROOTS?Yes, we’re in the process of building a house.

Where in the world?

| ABOVE: Toronto – where a programme is connecting fresh graduates with experienced alumni for help and advice


alumni services


FEAST OF EVENTS PLANNED FOR ALUMNI WEEKEND

All postgraduate alumni areinvited back to Edinburgh toattend the 2011 AlumniWeekend, from Thursday 28to Saturday 30 July.

The three-day programmeof events will kick off with areception on the Thursdayevening in the new BusinessSchool building.

As well as opportunitiesto re-connect with formerlecturers and fellow alumniof the school, there will be aseries of presentations and

business debates fromleading experts on theSchool’s core thematic areasof Carbon, Finance, PublicSector Management andEntrepreneurship andInnovation.

Though one of the mainelements of the event isprofessional networking,there will also be plenty ofopportunities for more socialevents, including a dinnerand ceilidh on the Saturdayevening. Partners and

children are very welcome to attend. For a fullprogramme and informationon logistics andaccommodation, [email protected]

The School aims to hostan alumni reception inMarch 2011 to officially openthe new School building.Confirmed dates will beposted on the alumniwebsite and all alumni arewarmly invited to attend.

Did you know?

The School provides accessto two online international

job-posting platforms.Details are on the new

website

New website for alumni launches

requests for specific functionality or content that you wantto see. And remember that this is not the only onlinepresence that is relevant to alumni. The School has its ownpages on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Nearly one quarter of all postgraduate alumni aremembers of the Business School’s Linkedin alumni groups,so it is a great way to reconnect and network with fellowalumni. You can link directly to the individual LinkedIngroups from the alumni site.

GET ALL THE DETAILS YOU NEED ON USEFUL ALUMNI SERVICES –FROM CAREER SUPPORT TONETWORKING – ALL ONLINE

The new alumni website is now live atwww.business-school.ed.ac.uk/alumni The site sits within the existing Business

School website and shares the same branding and design.

Alumni are able to update their details as well as findout about the latest news and events in their area. Thewebsite also gives full details of alumni services, includingnetworking, careers support, information resources andoverseas events. This version of the website is the firststage of what will be an ongoing development over thenext 12 months.

The new Business School building is equipped with thelatest in audiovisual and IT resources and this shouldallow us to provide speaker events online and otherstreamed media on the website, reaching out to ourglobal, 4,000-strong community. As the website willcontinue to evolve, please provide any comments or



The Alumni Team hasbeen recruiting alumnivolunteers to become

class representatives of theirgraduating year. We have hada great response and a list ofrepresentatives is listed onthe right. The role of ClassRepresentative is mostly afigurehead role, but providesa valuable, additional point ofcontact for alumni who wantto reconnect with each other.

Class representatives are alsooccasionally approached as analumni focus group andcontacted for their advice andfeedback on a particularalumni issue, but there is neverany obligation to respond.Some class representatives havealso offered to help with plansfor the 2011 alumni reunionweekend (see opposite page).

There are still year groups that do not haverepresentatives so if younotice that there is no replisted for your year group andyou are interested in the roleor wish to nominate a fellowclass member, please contactus on [email protected]

We are particularlyinterested in hearing fromMSc Accounting & Financeand MSc CarbonManagement alumni as these newly createdprogrammes do not have any representatives yet.

Your class needs you!

2009 FT Zev Kessler [email protected]

2009 PT Rhian Davies [email protected]

2008 FT Bing Tate [email protected]

2007 FT Lindsay Keith [email protected]

George Taylor [email protected] Chaikin [email protected]

2007 PT Peter Lo [email protected]

2006 FT Justin Gray [email protected]

2005 FT Kevin Fagan [email protected]

2005 PT Neil Harrison neil_d_harrison@ hotmail.com

2004 FT Jake Deacon [email protected]

2004 PT Simon Fairclough [email protected]

2003 FT Tony Banger [email protected]

2001 FT Kirsty MacGregor, [email protected] Stokes Herndon

2000 FT Hlíf Sturludóttir [email protected]

1999 FT Sebastian Lo [email protected]

1998 FT Hamdi Unutmaz [email protected]

1997 PT Suzanne Grahame [email protected]

1996 FT Jonathan Collie [email protected]

1995 FT Ann Fazakerely [email protected]

1991 FT Tod Dimmick [email protected]

1991 PT David Duncan [email protected]

1989 FT Krisnan Srinivasan [email protected]

1989 PT Alan Johnston [email protected]

1988 FT Graham Thomson [email protected]

1987 FT Pat Apperson [email protected]

1986 FT Bjorn Erikkson [email protected]

Year FT/PT Name E-mail Year FT/PT Name E-mail

MBA CLASS REPRESENTATIVES

MSc CLASS REPRESENTATIVES

MSc Finance & Investment

2009 Bjorn Schubert [email protected]

2008 Uday Rathod [email protected]

2007 Pavle Sabic [email protected]

2006 Manish Modi [email protected]

MSc Management

2009 Elisabeth Einhaus [email protected]

2008 Pankaj Kankaria [email protected] Seidt annalaura.seidt@

googlemail.comUsman Piracha [email protected]

MSc International Business & Emerging Markets

2009 Heather Webb [email protected] Morris [email protected]

2008 Alexandra Fraser [email protected] Delissy [email protected]

2006 Markos Voudris [email protected] Bethell [email protected]

Year Name E-mail Year FT/PT Name E-mail

alumni services


Sitting on a plane on his regular route to Chicago,Gerry Rose (Class of 1987) still pinches himself.Before his part-time MBA, he had no idea that the

type of job he now enjoys even existed. The idea that, as a consultant, he would counsel some

of the top multinationals in the world on how to bemore successful just never made it into his dreamswhen he was a civil servant. Nor did he consider that hisexperiences of success would lead him to the podium ofa new national awards ceremony – not as a recipient,although his success would certainly warrant one – butas its founder.

The first ever Performance Awards event was held inLondon on 27 May this year, but the idea for it was firstborn under the dark clouds of the credit crunch inSeptember 2008, to bring some light to the ‘doom andgloom constantly on the news’.

Gerry said: ‘I didn’t want to sit back and listen to allthat – I wanted to focus people’s attention on thepositive achievements out there.’

The annual event features high flyers from a range ofsectors, including sport, education, music, food anddrink and the environment. There is also a category for innovation.

The organising body, The Performance AwardsFoundation, aims to focus not only on celebratingachievement, but also mentoring emerging talent,studying high performance and inspiring latent UK talent.

And the root of all this work is, Gerry said, sharingstories. As well as using a glittering awards bash to dothis, the foundation runs interactive workshops called‘labs’ and will publish a book of the award winners’ talesof success every year.

special feature


‘THE IDEA OFPERFORMANCEACCELERATION ISBASED ON THREESTAGES – INSPIRE,FOCUS ANDPERFORM. THEESSENCE IS THATPERFORMANCEEQUALSPOTENTIAL MINUSINTERFERENCE’Gerry Rose

GERRY ROSE (CLASS OF 1987)LIFTS THE LID ON LIFE AS AWORLD-CLASS CONSULTANT –PIONEERING ‘PERFORMANCEACCELERATION’ AND FOUNDINGA NEW AWARDS SCHEME

Top speed

Aluminate October 2010_p18-19 NEW 29/9/10 14:05 Page 18

In fact, Gerry’sown story would sit

nicely alongside thosewho picked up a gong.

After 16 years in consulting,he claims some of the top

companies in the world as his clients – organisationssuch as Levi’s USA and Europe, LloydsTSB, Lego,Cadbury Schweppes, Triumph and Lands’ End. Theyhave all benefited from his idea of ‘PerformanceAcceleration’.

Gerry added: ‘The idea of performance acceleration isbased on three stages – inspire, focus and perform. Theessence is that performance equals potential minusinterference.

‘Take tennis players, for example. If they empty all thenonsense out of their heads they can improve their

performance. The same is true of businesses. I look toidentify those interferences, and reduce them inorganisations. I like to use the analogy of the sleekocean-going yacht. Someone needs to take off thebarnacles for it to go faster.’

One recent example he gives of the results of hisperformance acceleration approach is a well-knownjeans brand. He worked with the UK retail team and inthe first full year of his involvement, net revenue was up32 per cent on what was planned. That was almost athird more than other areas that had the same productand marketing.

The big challenge that his approach tackles is toconvince companies to focus on the big things.

He explained: ‘Most of the time, just 20 per cent ofwhat a company does generates 80 per cent of value,but they spend a lot of time on the 80 per cent thatgives just 20 per cent value.

‘Back in 2005 I challenged one global US business tolook at all of its new projects. Just 25 per cent weremaking any money, and I managed to convince thedirectors to drop 50 per cent. The outcome was that in just two years the company was back to enjoying growth.’

Gerry charts the start of his journey to becoming aworld-class consultant to his education on theEdinburgh MBA. He said: ‘What it gave me wasconfidence and strategic awareness.’ It also opened upthe door to a job at United Distillers, and its parentcompany Guinness. Back then, it was a ‘sleeping giant’. Ithas since reached its potential as one of the world’sbiggest drinks companies – now known as Diageo.

Gerry is proud of his involvement in waking up thegiant, and of the opportunity that helped first develophis business improvement principles.

He said: ‘When I joined everything was beingchanged, everything was possible. It was very excitingfor a young man, particularly when you are put in therole as I was of being responsible for organisationaldevelopment in our international markets, includingNorth America and Europe. The company had a greatvision and it really inspired me.’

But even before his MBA, being a young FinanceOfficer at the Scottish Office helped inform hisimprovement principles. He said: ‘There was disciplineand a common approach that, while it seems oldfashioned, are very relevant for today’s businesses. Toomuch of business leaders’ time these days is spent onmanaging the demands of communications technologies– trivial emails, for example – rather than looking at thebig picture and going out to inspire their workforce.’

These experiences, combined with his MBA, hashelped Gerry forge for himself a business approach thatis seeing big results. He credits his success to two factorsnoted in Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers – being inthe right place at the right time and dedicating morethan 10,000 hours to his discipline. Time well spent.


special feature

• KNOW WHAT YOUR SERVICEOFFER IS: Be clear ondeliverables and know whatconditions you need as aconsultant to be successful.Going into a job withoutthat means you are set up tofail from day one, and thatwill give you a badreputation. I miss out onjobs because I am very clearon what I need, and I’mfine with that becauseotherwise I will be wastingtime and client moneybecause the projectwill fail. • HAVE A GOOD WORK/LIFEBALANCE: There is a lot ofbusiness travel in consulting,and from the start I said tomy family that I would takea good break in the summerand at Christmas and I’vestuck to that.

• THREE IS THE MAGICNUMBER: I stick to beinginvolved in no more thanthree jobs at any one timeso I’m not spread too thin.At the moment I am workingwith the PerformanceAwards as well as onecompany in the States andone company in Europe.• PLAN FORWARD: There is along lead time in consultingbefore projects begin, withlots of preliminary meetingsto get people on board, so I am always looking forwork nine months to a year ahead of my currentprojects finishing.• BUILD UP A NETWORK OFASSOCIATES: I tried buildingmy business by trainingothers in my role, but Ifound that once theirtraining was complete they

left to start up on their own.Instead, I use a network ofother consultants that offercomplementary services. • FOCUS ON YOUR STRENGTHS:My accountant and businessmanager are invaluable.They allow me to focussolely on delivering clientperformance without gettingdistracted by administrativematters.

RECIPE FOR CONSULTING SUCCESS

GERRY ROSE OFFERS HIS TIPS ON HOW TO BEA SUCCESSFUL CONSULTANT:

GERRY’S READING LIST:• Funky Business by

Jonas Ridderstrale andKjell Nordstrom

• Good to Great by Jim Collins

• The Age of Unreason by Charles Handy

• The Great Crash of 1929 by J K Galbraith

• Tipping Point byMalcolm Gladwell

WANT TO KNOW MORE?For more information on the Performance Awards,visit www.theperformanceawards.comFor more information on Gerry’s consulting company,visit www.whiteroomeurope.com

Guest contributors to thefirst Performance Awards

Lab included Lord Seb Coe,Kanya King from MOBO and

Kane Kramer, the Britishinventor of the iPod

Did you know?


social media


THE OPPORTUNITIESPRESENTED BY SOCIALMEDIA ARE DIZZYING, BUTBUSINESSES ANDINDIVIDUALS NEED TOEXAMINE HOW THIS FITSINTO THEIR FUTURE,WRITES JACQUIE RORIE

It is hard to believe that only seven years afterMark Zuckerberg set up Facebook it now has500 million users globally. Relative new kid on

the block Twitter now has 100 million usersworldwide, yet was only created in 2006. Social media platforms such as these are nowmainstream, and account for a significant part ofhuman interaction.

Research by Ofcom in 2010 found that 45 percent of webtime on mobile browsers was onsocial media platforms such as Facebook. But ifyou think social media is just a means to shareyour holiday photographs with friends andfamily, then it is time to catch up with thecommunication revolution.

Social media is now a mainstream channeland platform for companies and individuals toconduct business, communicate with clients,source jobs, solve business problems, conductmarket research and the list goes on. The pace ofchange, and development of technology withthe opportunities this brings, are breathtakingand constantly changing. It is dizzying to thinkthat platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn andTwitter were mostly unheard of just a few shortyears ago, and now they dominate the way manyof us communicate.

Trying to crystal-ball gaze into what the futureof social media will look like, and how that willimpact on the way we live and do business, is achallenge, but one businesses and individualsneed to embrace.

John Campbell, Director of digital mediacompany Precedent, believes that it is pointlessto speculate beyond the next three years as thepace of change is so fast it is impossible to seebeyond that narrow window.

One of John’s predictions is that the numberof providers in the social media landscape willhave to rationalise. ‘There is a huge amount ofconfusion in the social media sector. The mainplayers are LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, butthere are hundreds if not thousands more,’ hesaid. ‘All these players are developing capabilityand overlapping functionality.

‘All are fighting for the main audience insteadof developing complementary content andfunctionality. The services and propositions willhave to rationalise over the short-term and themarket will be leaner.’

John anticipates that this rationalisation will

Join the


The Business School hasrecently undertaken researchthat analysed commentsmade by staff in response tothe blogs of senior managersof blue chip companies. Theresearch measured the levelsof staff engagement, andassessed how effective a blogis as a channel of HRcommunications.

Creating a virtual presencerequires a new rule book.Blogs communicate and elicitemotion and, like emailssometimes result inunintended consequences.

The research found thatpostings needed to beregular, informative andtopical or staff engagementwould soon drop off. To

generate maximum responsestaff had to be allowed torespond anonymously. Key tothe success of this mediumwas remembering that thesesocial/staff networking sitesshould involve a two-wayprocess, and that managershad to do something withthe information and engagein the conversation.


social media

BLOGGING TO ENGAGE WITH STAFF...

CONTINUED ON PAGE 22 >>>

he flockbring benefits for the user. ‘If you want topublicise an event or announce a new service,you probably need to post it on up to fivedifferent platforms. Very soon you will need todo this just once as standards are beingdeveloped that will allow users to have an openID, which will mean one sign in and passwordacross all social platforms.’

John also predicts that geo-location, and thedevelopment of services around this, will drive arevolution in consumer marketing andbehaviour. The development of applicationssuch as Four Square and Gowalla allowsconsumers to publish their location, and moreimportantly allows companies to offer incentivesto their customers to do so.

This is a trend that is already happeningwidely in the US, where web and mobiledevelopers have been exploring location-basedfeatures for several years. Corporate promotionswhere venues and retailers ‘reward’ customerswho publish their location is increasinglycommon. In the US, Starbucks used aFourSquare promotion to attract a millioncustomers to its store in one day.

In August 2010, Facebook launched a newtool, Facebook Places, which allows users topublish their location. It is currently onlyavailable in the US but will be in the UK within the year.

Even the luddites among us are beginning toappreciate that social media provide hugeopportunities in our professional lives and canprovide a critical tool to launch and progress our careers.

LinkedIn is one platform that offers theseopportunities. A professional networkingphenomena founded in 2003, it connects morethan 75 million professionals worldwide.LinkedIn proclaims itself as more than just a job-hunting and corporate hire site. It allows users tonetwork, share ideas, pose questions, helpcontacts and make decisions. As a corporate toolis has been hugely successful with some


social media


companies able to recruit the majorityof their senior staff via LinkedIn andcutting the costs and time to hire.

LinkedIn provides a platform forindividuals and companies, though inmany ways the distinction between theindividual and the company is a falseone in the social media landscape. AsChris Brown, University of Edinburghalumnus and Enterprise RelationshipManager for LinkedIn, said: ‘In essence,every professional is now a smallbusiness, and your online identity and presence are just an extension of the brand.’

Chris’s journey to a role at LinkedInbegan in 2006 when he became amember of the network and was laterapproached by LinkedIn, via his profile,to work for the company in 2009. In many ways Chris embodies thearchetypal success story of virtual

networking. Social media platformsoffer broader opportunities tocompanies, not just a tool for recruitingstaff. Large corporates are using socialmedia platforms as an integral part oftheir corporate strategy. Vodafone is apioneer on this front, using Twitter asits main customer services channel.Customers can tweet their problem toVodafone where their tweet is dealtwith by a named member of staff,allowing a personal service to bedelivered, avoiding the biggestconsumer downside of call centres, theabsence of a personal service.

So where does this leave many smallcompanies which are novices in thesocial media landscape, and lack theexpertise and budget of the bigger,more established players? The greatestasset of social media is that it is largelyintuitive, and technical expertise is no pre-requisite to success. In fact,websites such as ning.com allow you tobuild your own social media platformto suit your own needs, with notechnical knowledge required.

What is important is to establishyour objectives and engage with your audience.

John Campbell said: ‘You have to think of a strategic approach.Measure the return and understandthe success criteria. Social media isnot an alternative marketing channelnow, it is an essential one, but stillvery few businesses have a socialmedia strategy.’

It is also worth remembering thatyou do not have to stick to the big

three providers, Twitter, Facebookand LinkedIn. As specialised, youngerplayers come into the market, it couldbe that one of these is a better matchfor your objectives and audience. Oneexample of this is KILTR, a ‘socialmedia diaspora network’ (which hasjust launched to public beta atwww.kiltr.com). Brian Hughes, CEOand Co-Founder of KILTR, a partnerof the University of EdinburghInformatics Ventures, states thatmembers can be individuals,companies or organisations that sharea connection and affection forScotland. They share an aim topromote enterprise and businessgrowth both within Scotland and forits global communities. Brian said:‘There is also room in the social media market for a nimble playerwith less clutter and more creativedelivery of info.’

A brave new world where socialmedia is a key medium of how wecommunicate and organise our lives isalready here. The opportunities areevident but the downsides are still tobe wrestled with. How do we managethe juggling act of work/life balancewhen our work email, personal textsand family photographs are allmanaged through one mobile device –a smartphone – which so few of us canfunction without. The price we pay forthe social media revolution is perhapsstill uncertain but as social media isalready such an integral part of the waywe live, it will be one that most of uswill make willingly.

‘SOCIAL MEDIAIS NOT ANALTERNATIVEMARKETINGCHANNELNOW, IT IS ANESSENTIALONE, BUT STILLVERY FEWBUSINESSESHAVE A SOCIAL MEDIASTRATEGY’John Campbell


When it comes tobusiness schools,reputation is veryimportant, but we can nolonger rely on historicalreputation alone.

To attract students, weneed to engage the bestand brightest with ourbrand. The challenge for the School is to formmeaningful relationshipswith increasingly diverseaudiences.

Traditional media wasabout top-down messagesdisseminated fromorganisations. Today, it’sall about conversations

and two-way interactions.At the forefront of newmedia is socialnetworking. It’s aboutengaging, inspiring andintriguing our audienceand empowering friends,followers, fans and otherstakeholders to interactwith brands on a regular basis.

The most popularnetworks – Facebook,Twitter and LinkedIn –have a mostly socialpurpose to bring peopletogether. At the BusinessSchool we use these tocommunicate school news,

as well as encouragingstudents and alumni toengage with us. Inaddition staff membershave blogs and academicscan post on forumsrelevant to their subject area.

Our balanced strategyinvolves carefully selectedoutreach through socialmedia channels, linked inwith a frequently updatedwebsite. We have notengaged with all channels,just a select few where webelieve we can benefit ouraudience and add value.

Activity is continually

reviewed as socialnetworking trendsevolve.

The challenge withsocial media is thatyou do relinquish brandownership and have to beprepared for this. Optingout is no longer really anoption as all brands arefreely discussed on theinternet. By engaging wehave a chance to helpshape theseconversations.

SCHOOL EMBRACES MEDIA TO ENGAGE THE BEST AND BRIGHTEST

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 21 >>>

NETWORK WITH THE SCHOOLConnect with www.facebook.com/uoebusinessand www.twitter.com/uoebusiness



social media

FOR PROFESSIONALS...• TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR ONLINEPROFESSIONAL PROFILE

Today, first impressionscommonly happen online, withpotential clients, businesspartners and employers Googlingpeople ahead of key meetings. Acompleted and active LinkedInprofile will come at the top ofsearches for your name, allowingyou to take control of what peoplesee about you online, and lettingyou keep your social networks foryour personal life.

• GET THE RIGHT INFORMATION ATTHE RIGHT TIMEWhether it’s fellow alumni orpeople that you’ve worked with inthe past, we all have a network oftrusted contacts which it makessense to keep in touch with in abusiness context. LinkedIn offersa free service to connect withthese trusted contacts, allowingyou to easily keep up to date withwhat they’re doing, and reach outto them for business insights,opportunities and advice whenyou need it. Timely informationfrom trusted contacts is key to

business success, so it pays tobuild your network before youneed it. Also, the iPhone andBlackBerry mobile apps allow youto get more information onpeople you’re meeting on the go.

• CONNECT TO NEW OPPORTUNITIESIf you’re looking for your first stepinto the professional world ormaybe considering the next stepin your career, LinkedIn gives youaccess to the decision makersand key people in the companiesyou might want to work for. It’seasy to find the right people and ifyou’ve built your network, it’smore likely that you’ll knowsomeone in common who canmake an introduction, so you canget your foot in the door and getahead of the crowd.

• GET FOUNDHaving a full profile on LinkedInmakes you more likely to show upin search results on the site.Today, 25 per cent of the FTSE 100and 60 per cent of the Fortune100 companies hire throughLinkedIn and with more than onebillion people searches last year itpays to be discoverable.

• DEMONSTRATE YOUR AMBITIONAND EXPERTISELinkedIn Groups and Answers aregreat resources for findingbusiness knowledge from othermembers. Additionally, theyprovide a platform fordemonstrating your expertise byoffering answers related to yourindustry or participating indiscussions. They’re also a greatplace to find people in the fieldsyou’re interested in to ask foradvice on how to go about getting into the industry.

FOR COMPANIES...• BETTER SHARING OFINFORMATION

Encouraging staff to join and beactive on LinkedIn will increasethe flow of industry insights,knowledge and best practice bothinto an organisation and betweenstaff in an organisation.

• SHARING OF INFORMATIONBETWEEN EMPLOYEESCreating a closed group onLinkedIn allows employees toshare information in an onlineenvironment where access can be

easily controlled with sub-groupsfor different divisions or locations.

• KEEP UP TO SPEED WITHCUSTOMERS AND COMPETITIONUsing tools such as CompanyFollow, staff can easily keep up-to-date with changes of customersand clients, or even competition,improving reaction times toindustry changes. With freemobile apps for BlackBerry andiPhone, LinkedIn can workwherever employees do.

• NETWORK OUTSIDE THE BUSINESSJoining LinkedIn Groups relatedto a particular industry andchecking out LinkedIn Answers inthe same field will help staff keepup to date with the latest trends,concerns, interests and opinionsfrom key professionals in thesector, as well as demonstratingtheir expertise.

• BE FOUNDCompany profiles are a greatplace for an organisation toestablish a presence wherepotential talent and customerscan easily find you. See if yourcompany already has one.

CHRIS BROWN, ENTERPRISE RELATIONSHIP MANAGER FOR LINKEDIN, GIVESHIS TOP TIPS ON GETTING THE MOST FROM THE SOCIAL NETWORKING SITE

BE THE STRONGEST LINK


THE CONSULTANT AND PARENT

social media


STEPHANIE JARVIE (CLASS OF 2002)

I set up my own consulting business two yearsago just after my son was born when I neededto find a way to balance caring for my littleone and still earn an income.

I saw a niche in the market in Australia toprovide online, new media and social mediastrategy for the corporate and governmentsectors. Organisations in Australia have beenslow to harness the potential of thesecommunication technologies.

Since starting my business, I’ve developed the ten-year weband new media strategy forMelbourne Water, which hassince adopted pretty much all ofthe recommendations, includingoverhauling its website, usingsocial networking sites such asFacebook, as well as posting videoon Youtube and regular updates on Twitter.

We’ve also launched a verypopular iPhone app where you canget up-to-the-minute data on waterstorages in the dams that supplyMelbourne. We’re also trialling usingSMS alerts to alert farmers about

when they can irrigate, and a separate trial for sending out flood alerts to people in flood zones.

As a parent, social media is not just mybread and butter, it also provides me with theflexible lifestyle to earn it. I mostly work fromhome, but can be seen tucked away in cafés,working in airports and at my clients’ offices.

The one item I can’t live without is myiPhone. I check my emails, access news feeds,

do my online banking, use thecurrency converter, translationtools, restaurant locator, accessvarious social media sites andapps. It also has episodes of myson’s favourite TV shows on it –I can’t tell you how many timesthis has got him to sit still on aplane, or bought me an extrafive minutes when I’m ondeadline.

In terms of my personal useof social media, I use LinkedIna lot to keep up with myprofessional network, and useFacebook to keep up with myfriends, alumni and formercolleagues around the world.

LINDSAY KEITH (CLASS OF 2007)

As a digital marketing consultant, Iadvise firms on how they can usesocial media to engage customers.

If firms don’t have a social mediastrategy, they are missing a trick. Ifimplemented correctly, firms can listento what consumers are saying abouttheir brand and products on socialmedia for vital insight that enablesinnovation.

When employing social media tomarket products or services, it’s aboutselling. The benefit in using digitalchannels is that it’s possible to trackentire user journeys from the firsttouchpoint to conversion.

When employing social media formarketing a brand, it is different. Welook to raise brand awareness byseeding links on blogs, in listening toconsumer conversations in Facebookand Twitter, responding to any negative

messaging and creating advocates tokeep the brand message going.

The future of social media lies inthe hands of consumers, but emergingtechnologies to look out for areFoursquare, Gowalla and the newFacebook commerce engine – not tomention Google’s plans for this area.

Social media is evolving, ultimatelyempowering the consumer to sharetheir experiences. It’s my job to helpbusinesses listen, act and respond.

Tales of tweets, p

THE DIGITAL MEDIA PROFESSIONAL

‘AS A PARENT, SOCIAL MEDIAIS NOT JUST MY BREAD ANDBUTTER, IT ALSO PROVIDESME WITH THE FLEXIBLELIFESTYLE TO EARN IT. IMOSTLY WORK FROM HOME,BUT CAN BE SEEN TUCKEDAWAY IN CAFÉS, WORKING INAIRPORTS AND AT MYCLIENTS’ OFFICES’Stephanie Jarvie

FOUR MBA ALUMNI SHARE THEIR ADVICE AND EXPERIENCESOF USING SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE NEW BUSINESS LANDSCAPETO CONNECT WITH CUSTOMERS, COLLEAGUES AND MORE...

WANT TO KNOW MORE?Lindsay Keith is ManagingDirector of Canvas Perspective(www.canvasconsutling.co.uk).Follow him on twitter@lwjkeith


THE TECHNOLOGIST

THE EVANGELICAL NETWORKER


social media

KRISHNAN SRINIVASIN (CLASS OF 1989)

I am half a century old this year.When I was at school, the likes of mobile phones and Skype were not around. So how did I cope with new technology? With fearand difficulty early on, butI adapted.

What surprised me was this:anything I put my mind to I was able to overcome. You could easily

experiment with new technology andthrough it learn new skills.

About two years ago in the run-upto the global financial crisis, I wasfeeling insecure at my company and started to look for freshopportunities. I joined LinkedIn andconnected with a former boss, who,in turn, was able to turn up the role Ihave today at Dell. From then on,looking for contacts gripped mealmost like an addiction. Today, Ihave more than 500 connections all

over the world. They continue to grow.

You could liken me to a virtualnetworking evangelist. Friends oftencome to me for help. I’ve used

LinkedIn to connect with totalstrangers to solve their businessproblems. I have also had otheralumni introduced to me to search forjobs. I find great fun and satisfactionin doing this.

I would be happy to help anyoneget started in virtual networking orLinkedIn in particular. Send me anemail at [email protected]

I am also on Skype, so I can talkyou through its functionality. Happynetworking.

posts and linksMERLIN GOLDMAN (CLASS OF 2002)

As a technologist I supposeit’s a given that I’mcomfortable with socialmedia and use it personallyand for work. LinkedIn isgreat as a database of contacts and sometimes to problemsolve. For instance, I was looking for some data on assessingthe market value of genetics and posted a query onLinkedIn. A member of the group who had conductedresearch into that area sent me exactly what I needed.

My organisation, the Technology Strategy Board, usesTwitter as a staff posting board. Half of us are technologistsand travel a lot so we tweet where we are and what we areup to and this is posted on the staff intranet. It can betrivial, but occasionally I pick up that a colleague is meetingwith a company or contact that is relevant to what I’mworking on. It’s all part of good internal communication.

The purpose of the Board is to promote innovation andthat means bringing innovators together. I’ve been involvedin developing Connect, a networking tool for technologiststhat uses the same principles as a social media platform. Itallows them to speak to each other, set up blogs and shareinformation. It was set up early this year and is accruingmembers at a rate of 100 a day. Hopefully it is helping tofoster a climate of innovation and boost the UK’s economy.

‘I’VE USED LINKEDIN TOCONNECT WITH TOTALSTRANGERS TO SOLVETHEIR BUSINESSPROBLEMS’ Krishnan Srinivasin

WANT TO KNOW MORE?Merlin Goldman is Lead Technologist –Biosciences at the Technology Strategy Board. To join Connect, visit https://ktn.innovateuk.org



A fter graduating with an MSc in Management in 2007, I moved back to my native country of Iceland and started work as a

management consultant. My expertise is in public management and

organisational strategy. For four years I have hadministries, public agencies and municipalities forclients, conducting consultations with managementteams on change initiatives and the management of eGovernment initiatives. However, Iceland’seconomic landscape has changed dramatically in these four years.

My first year as a consultant was astonishing. Ientered a fast-phased business environment during aperiod of long-term economic expansion. My workrequired me to examine procedures, organisationalstructures, programmes and policies of public servicesto help them to keep up with the growth of privatebusiness and banks. Many businesses were also lookingfor highly skilled consultants who could step quickly into change initiatives.

The direction was all expansion and growth,and with the help of the Icelandic banks, itwas easy to gain access to internationalmarkets and therefore very easy for manycompanies to grow with leveragedacquisitions.

Companies started to buy up firms abroadand it now seems as if very few in Iceland couldstand by and look at the money flow and not takeadvantage of the situation. Individuals also tookadvantage of the banks’ easy access to internationalmarkets and public spending increased considerably.

The banks’ swift expansion was mainly based on theireasy access to European markets, on the basis of theEEA Agreement and, at the time, good rating of theIcelandic Treasury.

In the middle of the expansion period (2004-2006)mistakes were made in monetary and fiscal

management by the government. Taxes were loweredand public spending increased further. Supervisoryauthorities failed to grow in proportion with the banks.Cross-ownership of the largest companies and banks ledto a domino collapse of the three main banks.

Overnight, the business environment in Icelandchanged dramatically.

By October 2008 there was no way out of the crisis. The parliament passed emergency laws to protectthe Icelandic economy from total meltdown, and theemergency laws resulted in the creation of new banks.The debts, and the old banks, were left to a legal disputebetween the Icelandic government and its maincreditors. This legacy is still not resolved.

Cross-ownership in the banking sector and the largestcompanies means the crisis has had a domino effect onthe whole business environment. Many of the largestcompanies in Iceland are currently in the custody of the “new” banks.

Immediately after the economic crash, companiesbegan to shed surplus staff and attempted to return

to their core competencies. These samecompanies put their main focus on doing

things in house instead of outsourcing orlooking for consultants, which made thingschallenging for those who specialised in

providing consultancy services. Two years have passed and the same

companies are now beginning to recruit staffbetter suited to their current needs.As a result, my field of work had to change. I had to

adapt my consultancy skills from helping organisationsto grow and expand to working more effectively. Now,the focus is on helping organisations to collaborateacross networks and cut costs. This inevitably requiresorganisations to rethink their strategy. This is hard as theleaders of today have not faced a situation like thisbefore and there is no easy way out.

I had to adapt my skillset into providing different

professional development

MSC MANAGEMENT ALUMNUS ARNAR PALSSON (CLASS OF 2007) GIVESAN INSIDER’S VIEW OF THE ICELANDIC ECONOMY BEFORE, DURINGAND AFTER ITS ECONOMIC COLLAPSE – AND THE CHALLENGES FACINGA CONSULTANT IN THIS TOUGH ENVIRONMENT

Seventeen per cent ofBusiness School alumniwork in the consultancy

sector

Did you know?

Crisis response

‘AFTER THEECONOMIC CRASHI HAD TO FIND ANDUSE MORECREATIVEMETHODS TO FINDSOLUTIONS TOPROBLEMS’


support in very tough decision-making processes. I hadto find and use more creative methods to find solutions.

Much more effort had to go into supportingmanagers and leaders strategically in problem-solvingsituations. This was a challenge compared with before,when the only thing needed was a written report “aboutwhat to buy next and how that would support theorganisational growth”.

Now, leaders are struggling to find solutions andworking hard to mature these so there is some chanceof realising their potential.

Collaboration is also key. When functional solutionsare sparse, leaders need to work hard and well withtheir staff to ensure commitment to proposed actions.

Immediately after the crash, I took part in strategicworkshop sessions to gather views on cost cutting forministries and their agencies.

I worked with an agency in Iceland in analysing the organisational current and future needs. A newstructure and strategy was defined to address the crisisand maximise public value. I ensured ideas werebrainstormed and well developed before supporting theleadership in collaboration with their staff to decideupon the best possible actions.

Prior to my MSc, I had accumulated considerableexperience in eGovernment, and took the opportunityto study this further. I have since specialised in strategiceGovernment and the implementation of electronicgovernment procedures.

A substantial amount of taxpayers’ money can be

spared with the successful implementation oftechnology for basic processes and communicationbetween individuals, companies and public agencies.

Currently, my main consultancy projects are withinthe public sector. The basic tasks of government go ondespite the crisis and the need for governmentintervention is seemingly on the increase in Iceland. Thegovernment needs ad-hoc consultancy services. Morespecifically, it needs highly experienced consultantswho can come quickly into an assignment and leavewith no further obligations.

Although the business environment is slowlyrecovering in Iceland, I often think about opportunitiesabroad and how I could use my experience in a largerjob market to take on new challenges.

The benefits of working as an independentmanagement consultant are that it providesfreedom, diverse experience andflexibility. One of the morechallenging aspects is theuncertainty about the future.But you have the luxury ofbeing able to take quickdecisions when excitingopportunities arise.

I often think about my lifeas being like that of an oldIcelandic fisherman – who goesout daily never quite sure of whathe will bring back home.


professional development

• Be collaborative. Gatherinput from employees forproblem-solvingsituations. When youstrategically involve staffyou are more likely to getcommitment to proposedaction.• Review your businessstrategy regularly. Makesure it is focused, andconsistently review thatstrategy with employees. • When there is a hintof a downturn, tryimmediately to shiftyour focus to your corecompetencies.• The downturn canpresent opportunities forgrowth – seize theseopportunities! If you can’tfind them, focus onprotective action.• If the majority of yourleaders’ experience is froman economic-expansionperiod, they need supportand short-term expertiseto develop them intostronger leaders who canlead through the recovery.• Focus on bringing on theright people for yourcompany. During arecession, great talentemerges on the market.However, you may alsohave to consider lettingsome underperformingleaders and staff go.

HOW TOSURVIVE ANECONOMICDOWNTURN


Arnar Palsson says the benefits ofbeing an independent managementconsultant are freedom and flexibility


business development


Think back to when youwere at your mostcreative. Chances are

you’ll recall events fromyour childhood, rather thanrecent business dealings.

Yet in today’s turbulent andfast-paced business world, creativityis just what is needed to helporganisations to adapt and businessesto prosper. So if children can unleash theircreative energy through play, surely we can dothe same as adults?

Playing allows you to try out new ideas and explore new worlds without the fear of making the wrong decision, or beingostracised for trying something new.

PLAYING FOR STRATEGIC ADVANTAGEPerhaps unsurprisingly, some of the mostinnovative companies of the last ten years are those that have a playful streak.

Who would have imagined that Applewould now be selling phones and mp3players? Who would have guessed just tenyears ago that the low-cost airline upstarteasyJet would now be the largest carrier at Gatwick Airport?

Such successful companies did not achievebreakthroughs by extrapolating last year’s salesand following conventional industry wisdom.A key ingredient that sets today’s mostinnovative and creative companies apart is aplayful streak. Google now even buildsin play spaces to its offices.

In today’s dynamic Internetage, with decentralised, flat,global, and increasingly virtualcorporations, the limitations oftraditional approaches toplanning and control are self-evident. It’s no longer aboutdeveloping this year’s version of the“Model T” or fighting well-definedcompetitors. Instead, the real winners arethose companies who innovate in everythingthey do, allowing their strategies to emerge

collaboratively, and who can seize theopportunities arising out of chance events.

Invenzyme’s “PLAY4Business” approachapplies LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY™ (LSP)

methodology at its core, to create a toolthat is a key way of bringing that

essential creativity to the workplace,allowing organisations to:

• Communicate more effectively • Fast track to the real issues

• Develop innovative strategies • Align team goals and make better decisions.

To date, more than 300 projects have beencompleted by innovative and forward-lookingfirms using LSP, and a growing number arecreating teams of in-house facilitators. LEGOSERIOUS PLAY has shifted mindsets inorganisations as diverse as the French telecomgroup Alcatel-Lucent, pharmaceuticalfirms Roche and Novo Nordisk, andhousehold names such as Google,Nokia, NASA, Microsoft, Shell and Airbus!

The LEGO SERIOUS PLAYmethodology itself builds onresearch into cognitive psychologycarried out by such eminentpsychologists as Jean Piaget andhis disciples, such as the fact thatwe think differently and learnbetter when we build something withour hands.

As Plato said: “You can discover more abouta person in an hour of play than in a year

of conversation.”

BUILDING ON SCIENCEIt was the brainchild of twoprofessors of the IMD BusinessSchool in Switzerland, Johan

Roos and Bart Victor, and thethen CEO of the LEGO Group

Kjeld Kristiansen. Like strategic gurusGary Hamel and Henry Mintzberg, theyrecognised the limitations of conventionalstrategic planning, and by the late 1990s theytoo were searching for a way to enable

companies to develop radical, innovativestrategies. They believed that serious playwas the answer, and so developed LSParound ten years ago.

CHILD’S PLAY! OR IS IT?On the face of it, building with plastic bricksmay look like child’s play. But this is serious,adult play with a purpose. After a few warm-up exercises, participants quickly getinto building models that represent somethingreal, such as a business goal, a difficultcolleague, or something they are passionateabout. The insights that come out of theprocess are striking, and many clients find thata session can trigger many questions abouttheir company.

The warm-up exercises quickly buildrapport, encourage disclosure, enhance

awareness and trigger creativethinking.

Typically, this is followed by asequence of steps carefully designedand facilitated to lead participants toa shared identity, with a richerunderstanding of their own role, and the issues involved for themselvesand others.

They build a landscape, highlightingexternal and internal agents that may

influence performance. Agents arelinked with other agents and with the shared

identity, so the nature of relationships isreflected in the type of connection.

Areas of common interest and mutualdependence, as well as possible sources oftension, become clearer and they develop ashared interpretation of the challenges theyface that brings together their individualperspectives and overcomes their differences.

Possible “what-ifs” in the landscape areimagined and played out as if they happenedright now, and participants articulate whatmakes the response appropriate. Finally, theyindividually develop some simple guidingprinciples that they can take away to helpthem make the right decisions, and work


DR JIM PATON OF INVENZYME EXPLAINS WHY PLAY IS A SERIOUS BUSINESS

Play towin

Did you know?

Dr Jim Paton will speak atthe Business School aboutLSP on 26 October. To book,email alumni@business-

school.ed.ac.uk


collaboratively when faced with newchallenges back in their jobs.

COMMUNICATION AND CREATIVE THINKINGThe focus on what is constructed, more than on people, eases tensions, and participants who have never met beforefind it easy to communicate and workcollaboratively to create something that they all have a stake in.

Typically, the methodology is used withgroups of people who know each otheralready, and where there may be significantissues at stake. It enables everyone to expresstheir opinion constructively without feelingthreatened or indeed being threatening.

In essence, the LEGO becomes a powerfultool in helping identify and discuss somedifficult issues.

PLAY4Business adapts at its core the LEGO

SERIOUS PLAY facilitation tool to stimulatecreative thinking and get people to collaboratemore. The approach has been successfullyapplied to challenges as diverse as developinga corporate vision, creating a new product,aligning team goals and managing change.

THE FUTURE WITH PLAY4BUSINESSAs of May 2010, the LEGO Group madeLEGO SERIOUS PLAY methodology open source.

Our company, Invenzyme, as one of only a few organisations trained and certified in the original methodology by the LEGOGroup, has developed a range of applicationsbased on this unique approach to addresscommon business challenges.

We also train individuals as facilitators in our PLAY4Business applications that usethe LSP concept at their core, to helpcompanies create strategy, manage change and develop people.

So, the next time your organisation faces a big challenge, why not try a hands-onexperience to bring everyone together anddiscover a new way forward?

LEGO and LEGO SERIOUS PLAY are registered trademarks of the LEGO Group


business development

YOU CAN DISCOVER MOREABOUT A PERSON IN AN HOUROF PLAY THAN IN A YEAR OFCONVERSATION

Left images ©

2004 The LEGO

Group


research


Population changes and workforce ageingare prompting a rethink of retirement byindividuals, employers, governments and

researchers. Increasing life expectancy and delays in

the onset of ill health create potentialopportunities for many of those who want to continue in employment or performvoluntary work. At the same time, financialpressures on pensions and public services,resulting from population ageing, mean thatin the future older people will have a greaterneed to work than at present.

Final salary pensions, an important route toearly retirement in the past, are in steepdecline. Government reforms mean that infuture people will have to wait until after 65for a state pension.

In the context of a government agenda toextend people’s working lives, there is alreadyevidence of people delaying labour marketexit. Those over state pension age are thefastest growing group in the UK labourmarket, and research suggests this group blursthe divide between work and retirement bytypically working part-time while drawing ona state pension. It may be the case that notonly will people leave the labour market laterin future, those defining themselves as retiredwill increasingly perform paid work.

This future is far from certain, however,given unclear economic prospects, a strong


Rethinking

PROFESSOR WENDYLORETTO OF UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH BUSINESSSCHOOL HAS WON FUNDINGFROM THE ECONOMIC ANDSOCIAL RESEARCH COUNCILTO STAGE A SERIES OFSEMINARS THAT WILLADDRESS THE COMPLEXISSUES OF RETIREMENT

retirem

IT COULD BE THAT INFUTURE PEOPLE MAYNOT ONLY LEAVE THELABOUR MARKET LATER, BUT THOSEDEFINING THEMSELVESAS RETIRED WILLINCREASINGLYCONTINUE TO PERFORM PAID WORK



research

preference for leisure among many and thepossibility of increased caring responsibilitiesfor many of the younger old (including caringfor parents and grandchildren).

This seminar series will explore the extentto which retirement is changing, and is likelyto change, in future. Recognising thatretirement changes are likely to beinfluenced by a multitude of factors, and havea number of consequences, the series isinnovative in bringing together researchersfrom a range of disciplines and fields of study.

Seminars will explore the changingcontext of retirement, retirement incomes,employment, active ageing and the future ofretirement. The findings are likely to berelevant to academic and non-academicaudiences, including government policymakers. This will help in implementing thegovernment’s agenda to extend the workinglife, by ensuring that policies are informedby solid research on what is effective.

The Equalities and Human RightsCommission will benefit from hearing aboutresearch on the prevalence and nature of agediscrimination. This will help in providingadvice and guidance to employers andservice providers, and help in influencing theregulatory framework for promotingequality and human rights for older people.

NGOs and trade unions will also berepresented to hear how work, retirementand pensions are changing, as this can help them formulate campaigns and provide services such as the NationalPensioners Convention, and the Age andEmployment Network.

After the seminars a volume ofcontributions will be produced, aimed notonly at academics, but also policy makers andother professionals such as training managers,HR professionals and trade unionists.

The series of five seminars is a jointinitiative with the University of Kent andBrighton University and will begin inFebruary 2011.

ment

THE AUDIT LANDSCAPE IN THE UKIS CHANGING, AND TWO BUSINESS SCHOOL PROJECTS ARE CHARTING THE NEW GROUND

The audit, inspection and scrutiny of governmentand public services is big business.

The UK, in particular, has a bewildering array of organisations charged with this task, and theirproliferation and expansion over the past twodecades has been the subject of contentiousdebate.

Many fear the ‘Audit Society’ has got out of handwith public services spending too much time makingthemselves fit for audit rather than deliveringservices. There are frequent calls for professionals tobe set free to get on with their jobs and the UKGovernment has responded by announcing thedemise of the Audit Commission in England.

Yet high-profile failures in public services, suchas the failure of child protection services to preventthe deaths of Victoria Climbié and Baby Peter,produce demands for more oversight andsurveillance. Already, commentators are asking who

will tackle failures in England’s local authoritiesnow the Audit Commission is being axed.

Getting the balance right is difficult, and policydecisions on the future of audit, inspection andscrutiny need to be informed by good evidence onthe operation and impact of these bodies. To thisend, Sandra Nutley of University of EdinburghBusiness School has joined forces with Steve Martinof Cardiff Business School to study various aspects ofaudit and inspection activity.

One project (also involving James Downe andClive Grace from Cardiff Business School) investigatedthe different regimes for assessing local governmentperformance in England, Scotland and Wales. Itmapped their key features, explored the reasons fordifferences and similarities between them and theconsequences of the differences.

The research generated a rich understanding ofvarious ways in which local governmentperformance improvement is stimulated andassessed. It was supported by the key organisationsresponsible for implementing the inspection regimesin the three nations (including central governmentdepartments, audit bodies, improvement agenciesand local authority associations) and it was funded

by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).The emerging findings were tested with a range

of practitioners and policy makers in two seminars.Responses confirmed the findings and showed thatthe research had practical and policy benefits,particularly in helping to shape the revised regimesoperated by both Audit Scotland and the WalesAudit Office.

Another project (involving Ruth Levitt andWilliam Solesbury, both associate research fellowsof the University of Edinburgh Business School)examined how audit, inspection and scrutinyorganisations collect, analyse and interpretevidence in making judgements about theperformance of public services. As a result of thiswork, the research team identified eight principlesfor the effective use of evidence in theseorganisations. These principles, along with detailsof the research evidence underpinning them, areexplained in a briefing paper published by theNuffield Foundation, called Evidence foraccountability: using evidence in the audit,inspection and scrutiny of UK government.

The Foundation describes the briefing paper asessential reading for anyone working in the audit,inspection and scrutiny field. It is also useful forpolicy makers who are seeking to reshape the audit, inspection and scrutiny landscape.

In April 2010, the Nuffield Foundation hosted a seminar to facilitate discussion betweenresearchers and practitioners on the role and impactof audit, inspection and scrutiny bodies. This set outan agenda for policy review andfuture research.

WATCH OUT

RESEARCH HAS GENERATED ARICH UNDERSTANDING OF WAYSIN WHICH LOCAL GOVERNMENTPERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT IS ASSESSED. THAT HAS HELPEDSHAPE REVISED REGIMES INSCOTLAND AND WALES

WANT TO KNOW MORE?For a copy of the paper Evidence foraccountability, visitwww.nuffieldfoundation.org




research


Despite a long and prestigious career as a leadingacademic in the field of corporate finance, AbhayAbhyankar had not intended to pursue a career in

academic research. After university, he was fast-trackedinto the Indian Administrative Service, and held a range of senior civil service and policy roles, including Managing Director of a regional development corporationand Joint Secretary, Department of Industries in a State Government.

A decision to undertake a Masters in Finance in the UK was a springboard to an entirely new career andAbhay has since held posts at a number of Britishuniversities including Durham, Warwick and Stirling,joining the University of Edinburgh Business School in 2006.

Abhay is passionate about research and making otherssee that even the most abstract academic research isrelevant to real life. ‘No matter how esoteric academicresearch appears to be, it is still dealing with the real worldand grounded in practice,’ he said.

‘You could argue that we are in this current financialsituation because people did not understand how financialtools worked and what the effects would be. Researchgives us this understanding.’

Abhay illustrated this point by referencing a recentpiece of research that won him a prestigious award fromthe Spanish Stock Exchange. The focus of the researchwas examining how risky government bonds are.‘Individuals may think such questions are irrelevant tothem, but out of about 60,000 mutual funds in the USalone, up to 15 per cent are invested purely in governmentbonds, largely because they are perceived as low risk. Asmost pensions are directly influenced by the risk factorseffecting government bonds, it is very relevant to millionsof people around the globe what the risks are.’

In addition to his academic research, Abhay has workedclosely with a number of companies, but none more sothan Roche Scientfic Products (India) Ltd, a subsidiary of F Hoffman La Roche, Basel, Switzerland. It is also one of thelargest foreign-owned pharmaceutical companies in India.

The company develops drugs for cancer treatments andis also the producer of Tamiflu, a drug which receivedmuch publicity during recent outbreaks of swine flu acrossthe globe. Abhay has been an Independent ExecutiveResearch Director on the company board for six years. Hisin-depth knowledge of Indian policy and governmentprocesses comes in useful when debating the complex

‘YOU COULDARGUE THAT WE ARE IN THIS CURRENTFINANCIALSITUATIONBECAUSE PEOPLE DID NOTUNDERSTAND HOWFINANCIAL TOOLSWORKED ANDWHAT THE EFFECTSWOULD BE’Abhay Abhyankar

issues that the pharmaceutical sector is facing, such as the debate raging over the production of patent andgeneric drugs.

In addition to his research and work with corporatebodies, Abhay was recently appointed Dean InternationalIndia, working closely with the University’s InternationalOffice to build partnerships with Indian institutions,companies and research bodies. As a part of theUniversity’s Internationalisation Strategy, both thestrengthening and deepening of existing links andestablishing new ones is under way.

The University has plans to formally open an Indiaoffice next year. This office will provide, among otheractivities, a focus for improved contacts and interactionwith alumni in India.

However, it is high-quality academic research thatAbhay believes is still paramount. ‘To the non-academic,finance research is complex statistics and maths, but theseare tools to study real-world problems in a rigorous andcareful way. It is equally important for academic researchto be communicated in relevant and practical ways tofinance practitioners and the wider world. Ultimately,research is about providing an evidence base to supportbusiness decisions and drive strategy.’

Grounded in practicePROFESSOR ABHAY ABHYANKAR,HOLDER OF THE BAILLIE GIFFORDCHAIR OF FINANCIAL MARKETS,EXPLAINS HOW ACADEMICRESEARCH GIVES MEANING TO COMPANIES AS WELL AS INDIVIDUALS



research

Edinburgh Research and Innovation (ERI) is the University of Edinburgh’scompany responsible for engagement

with the business community in the UK andworldwide. ERI handles the awards to theUniversity of research grants and contracts(worth £209 million in 2009/2010). Itprovides consultancy services to companiesand public bodies (£5 million in 2009), andlicenses the results of research to companies,or sets up new companies to take inventionsforward to the market.

One of the best-known spin-outs fromEdinburgh is Wolfson Microelectronics, whichhas supplied digital/analogue conversionchips for consumer electronics products suchas Apple’s iPod and the XBox games console.

Wolfson was floated in 2003, with a marketvaluation at the time of £214 million.

Another successful spin-out for theUniversity was MTEM, a company thatdeveloped innovative hydrocarbon surveytechnology. Having launched in 2004, MTEMwas acquired in 2007 for $275 million by aNorwegian company that provides seismicservices to the global oil industry.

An earlier invention of a vaccine againsthepatitis C was successfully licensed, and has,to date, generated royalties to the Universityin excess of £40 million.

WORKING WITH A UNIVERSITYTO ENHANCE YOUR COMPANYThere are different ways for yourcompany to work with auniversity:• Consultancy – a company maywish to engage an academicexpert who will use their existingknowledge to assess a specificproblem and recommend a course ofaction. This is usually based upon a simplecontract and an agreed daily rate. For arelatively modest outlay this can sometimes‘unblock’ a business problem.• Research – if a company has a researchproblem, which is in an area of interest to anacademic group, the University can undertakecollaborative research. While rarely cheap,this can work out to be cost-effective whencompared with the total cost of building anin-house R&D capability to perform the sameproject from a standing start.• Licensing – there may be a university outthere that has already invented a new productwhich could enhance or broaden yourcompany’s offering. For example, licensable

inventions from Scotland’s universities are all showcased on a single website atwww.university-technology.com• Executive education or other forms of CPD– this should need no further explanation toreaders of this magazine.

AVOIDING THE PITFALLSAll major universities employ peoplespecifically to liaise with the businesscommunity. They may be called technologytransfer teams, knowledge exchange offices,commercialisation offices or the office ofsponsored programmes. While there are

cultural differences between business andacademia, these professionals will

have experience in both camps and are there to help.

Tricky areas will usuallyinclude academic pressures topublish and ownership of

intellectual property (IP). I have been working on this

commercial/academic interface for 20 years, and have found that these can always be dealt with.

Publishing an academic paper takes longerthan filing a patent, so as long as everybody iscommunicating effectively, both can be doneand each side’s objectives can be met. When itcomes to IP ownership, all parties shouldfocus on what rights they need in the IP ratherthan on the question of legal ownership.

If a company has all the rights tocommercially exploit the IP in its targetmarkets, then arguing over ownershipbecomes a matter of dogma. With the correctrights, it can get on with the business ofgenerating sales and enhancing profitability –a much better focus for its energy.

MBA ALUMNUS AND HEAD OF COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT AT ERI, IAN MURPHY (CLASS OF 1998),EXPLAINS HOW DEVELOPING A RELATIONSHIP WITH A UNIVERSITY BRINGS VALUE TO COMPANIES

Did you know?

In 2009/10, ERI wasinvolved in 80 licences ofUniversity work and thecreation of 40 start-up

companies

Bringideasto life

| ABOVE: Ian Murphy says that for a modest outlay, research can unblock a business problem

ABOVE: SATSIS Ltd, which developed accuratelocation technology for mobiles, was one venturespun out of the university with ERI’s help


CLASS OF 1982 FULL-TIME

PETER O’NEILL‘Following a number of years working and living in the USA, I have recently taken up my new appointment as CEO of the National Society of Allied & Independent Funeral Directors in the UK.

‘This is a trade association representing theindependent funeral directors in the country. I havealso established my own mergers and acquisitionscompany that specialises in the sale and purchase offuneral homes and other funeral-related supportorganisations in the UK.

‘Prior to taking on this appointment, I was workingin the USA with a leading mergers and acquisitionfirm based in Phoenix, Arizona. I was primarilyfocused on selling air-conditioning businesses andmechanical contractors in the west coast of America.

‘My earlier career included senior managementpositions with two public companies that specialise inequipment rental in the USA (Aggreko and RentalService Corporation).

‘Anybody out there from the class of 1982? Contactme at [email protected]’


PAT APPERSONHaving spent 25 years in commodities and finance inthe USA and Australia, Pat has begun the pursuit of aPHD in Economics (finance) and will start at Clemson

University in the US this autumn. Pat is residing inGreenville, South Carolina, where he is enjoyingoutdoor sporting activities, tennis, playing theHighland bagpipes and still returns to Australiaannually. He is looking forward to the 25th reunionin 2012.


GRAHAM THOMSON

Graham sent in this photo of his and JohnKennedy’s (also class of 1988 full-time) families ona recent visit by John to Graham’s home in theCotswolds. John has been working for some time inWealth Management with the Bank of Ireland inDublin and Graham is a freelance ProgrammeManager currently working in London for Lloyd’sBanking Group.

CLASS OF 1990 PART-TIME

ALISTAIR GRANT Alistair recently joined Eaga Plc as GroupProcurement Director based at corporateheadquarters in Newcastle upon Tyne. Alistairwas previously UK Procurement Director withBombardier Transportation in Derby. Home is still in Crieff, Perthshire.


FIONA GIFFORD Fiona followed her passion for leadership and itsimpact on team and organisation performance, andrecently founded The Performance Collective

people


FIND OUT WHERE YOUR CLASSMATES HAVE GONE WITH THEIR DEGREE...

Where arethey now?


SCOTT G HAWKINSScott was recently sworn in as President-Elect of TheFlorida Bar. Full information about Scott’s achievementcan be found at www.jones-foster.com by accessingthe “Congratulations Scott Hawkins” button in themiddle of the page.


Limited. Under her leadership, The PerformanceCollective partners have an ambition and passion to create extraordinary performance outcomesthrough the environment they create for theirpeople. Fiona can be contacted [email protected]


LYNNE OLSENLynne is heading back to Drammen, Norway, afterhaving spent four years in Canada.

BARBARA AND SERGE ROUX-LEVRAT ‘We are still happily living in Zurich. Amazingly, weare opening new doors – Serge will be publishing

two books (Make your Life Worth Living and How to Enjoy an Abundant Health) soon atwww.HeavensPress.ch and will be embarking(part-time) on an ambassadorial role for JesusChrist. We both wish you all many blessings forthe season.’

CHI MAN YEUNG ‘I left the Black & Decker group two years ago andset up my own business. I now design, register andpatent products mainly with regard to pet supplies– see www.pro-a.com.hk and www.pet-d-fashion.com and I welcome you to join my LinkedInnetwork at http://hk.linkedin.com/in/yeungchiman’


SUSANNA TEINILÄ‘We have just returned to Switzerland after14 months of sailing.

‘We left from south of France and continued via the Canary Islands, Cape Verde to Brazil andfinally to the Caribbean. This May we joined ARCEurope for our return trip and arrived on the 6 June in Horta on the island of Faial (the Azores).We sailed with a 38-foot, 27-year-old French ketch (steel). In these 14 months we travelled12,000 sea miles, made some new friends, sawinteresting things and learned that we actually donot need that much to live. Reports and photos canbe found on www.polaris-basilea.ch

‘I can be reached again under my old emailaddress: [email protected]’


DR EVE POOLEEve achieved her doctorate in Theology from theUniversity of Cambridge earlier this year. She has twobooks coming out with Palgrave Macmillan in theautumn – The Church on Capitalism, basedon her PhD, and Ethical Leadership(edited with Carla Millar).


FIONA VAN ASWEGANFiona and family are taking ayear out to enjoy an adventuretravelling overland from Scotland toSouth Africa. Follow the adventure atwww.5plus4x4.blogspot.com


STUART MILLARStuart and his wife have just completed theacquisition of a transportation business in NewYork and are starting a new family adventure (theynow number six) in Montezuma, Costa Rica. Stuartwould love to reconnect with any of his classmatesif they’re ever in the area by contacting him [email protected]


MARKUS GEISENBERGERMarkus will soon take up a new position asManaging Director of the Leipzig Trade Fair, moving from Munich to Leipzig with his family inOctober 2010. He has worked in the trade fairbusiness for the past eight years. The Leipzig TradeFair is one of the leading trade fair organisers inGermany with a turnover of 70 million Euros and400 employees.


people


MALCOLM BROCKLEBANK‘I have never really felt that I had anythingto say before even though I suppose livingfor 30 years in Hong Kong and travellingaround the region, I do meet over half of theworld’s population on my travels. However,recently my life has changed somewhat.

‘In December, I saw an advert attractingAsian companies to enter a contest byexplaining why travel was so important tothe expansion of the business in the nexttwelve months.

‘My company, Marketing and ManagementSolutions (a consulting company that Istarted after completing my MBA, givingstrategic marketing advice to clients),complied with the requirements and Icompleted my business plan for 2010-2011and sent it to the contest organisers, alongwith 383 other hopeful candidates.

‘The results in February included my namein the list of 30 winners.

‘The organiser of the contest was BritishAirways and the awards was ten

business class tickets toanywhere in the world. I have

since visited Brazil, Belgium,Argentina and Uruguay andplan to visit Dubai, Canada,South Africa, USA and theCaribbean in the next few

months.’

Get in touch

Update your old classmateson what you’re doing andwhere you are headed torekindle old connections

and make new ones.Details overleaf


JERRY HEADLEYJerry’s part-time lifestyle venturecontinues to keep him busy when heskippers Lizzie May in Scottish watersduring the sailing season. Thehighlight of this year’s programme wassailing in company for a week with sixother classic boats. For more details,visit www.clydeclassicsailing.com


people


President Sales for Otto Bock Healthcare Group,Germany, looking after worldwide salesmanagement. Otto Bock is a market leader inmanufacturing prosthetics limbs and devices,operates in more than 130 countries with morethan 40 offices worldwide – an interestingchallenge after working for seven years in Scotlandwith high-tech start-up companies.’


DANIEL LEHMANN ‘I have been appointed as General Managerof Ehinger & Cie in Basel, a small and verytraditional asset management firm for private andinstitutional investors, starting in January 2011. Asyou may imagine, this is a very exciting opportunityand a great challenge that I am looking forward to.I’ve been with Eversheds law firm for more thanthree years now, which has been a very interestingand instructive time.’

SIMON WINFIELD ‘I have joined the team at ecolour, a manufacturerof zero-VOC, carbon neutral paints, based in ByronBay, New South Wales, Australia. I am very excitedabout the opportunities for this product, both inAustralia and internationally. I recently took aGraduate Certificate course in Carbon Managementat Bond University, which led me to seek outsustainability solutions.’


JUSTIN GRAYJustin has recently accepted a position with a medical device manufacturer, Medtronic, as aProduct Manager for insulin pumps in the UKand Ireland. He lives in Richmond, southwestLondon, with his fiancée, Enrica Trapletti, class of2006 part-time.


SUHA CUBUKCUOGLU ‘I have worked for IBM as an Assignee Consultant,based in Istanbul, Turkey, since June 2009. My jobresponsibility is to plan and execute educationactivities for IBM Software Group in Central andEastern Europe, Russia, the Middle East and Africa.It is an exciting role with a lot of opportunity fortravel and networking around the region. I wouldbe very pleased to hear from alumni who visitTurkey either on a temporary basis or for work.’

With Aluminate going to all of the School’s postgraduatealumni, we welcomecontributions from MSc and PhD, as well as MBA alumni.

EDITORIALWe are always on the lookout for articles, so if you have started your own business, recently beenpromoted or have an interesting story to tell, for example, please contactthe Alumni Manager.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?Why not let us know of anycareer changes, relocations andfamily news. Send no more than60 words, stating your name,programme and year ofgraduation.

BIRTH AND WEDDINGSFor new arrivals, send a photoof yourself with your baby, and include the baby’s fullname, date of birth and yourpartner’s name. For weddingphotographs, please include

the date and location of thewedding and yourpartner’s name.

Pictures: Digital files as high aresolution as possible please.

Copy deadline: Monday 21 February 2011.

Send to: [email protected] or AlumniManager, University of EdinburghBusiness School, 29 BuccleuchPlace, Edinburgh EH8 9JS.

SHARE YOUR GREAT STORIES


EIRO TANIGUCHIEiro and fellow Edinburgh MBA alumni recentlyestablished a touch rugby club, the Tokyo Lions.Although the team is not exclusively for Edinburghgraduates, the key members of the team are (picturedfrom left back) Eiro, Daisuke Okajima (2010/2011 MBAcandidate), Yoshihiko Iwasaki (Class of 2008 full-time)and Kazuhide Rikuta (Class of 2002 full-time). Eirohopes that more Edinburgh MBA alumni and family inJapan will participate in this team activity. If you areinterested, please access http://lionstrc.blog24.fc2.com/


AMANDA VAUGHAN ‘I recently immigrated to Melbourne, Australia, and Iam now working for a consultancy company namedSMS Management and Technology as a ProjectManager. I made the move on the 1 July, having beentrying to get my work visa in place for four years.Finally, I made it and I love the café culture thatMelbourne has to offer, plus the trams that remindme of my old home in Manchester.’


ALEX MACPHIE‘I first did a charity cycle from Saigon to Angkor Watin 2006, after my young cousin died of cancer. Thiswas the spur after years of saying I should really dosomething. Despite only having three months toprepare, I managed to raise close to £4,000 for theBeatson Oncology Centre in Glasgow where he wastreated. Having gotten the bug, I signed up withseveral of the people I had met on the first ride onthe Andes to Amazon challenge in September 2008.This was the toughest thing I had ever done withlong days in the saddle combined with high altitudebetween 10,000 and 14,400 feet. The effort was

worth it as I managed to raise £5,700 for MacmillanCancer Support and Simpsons Special Babies. This yearI changed tack quite literally and I’m raising funds forOcean Youth Trust Scotland which uses sailing todevelop the leadership skills of young people. Thechallenge itself is to cycle to the Kathmandu Valley inNepal, which will be both tough and magical at thesame time. I’m looking for personal sponsorship viawww.justgiving.com/alexmacphie or corporatesponsors can contact me directly [email protected]’


SHINICHI HATA‘I met, very coincidentally, with former MBAclassmates, Matt Nicholas and Suzanne Favuzza, inHawaii at the beginning of August. They were visitingfrom Europe, and I from Japan. Needless to say, wedid not plan to meet as I did not know that myclassmates were visiting the island at the same timeand that we would meet in the middle of PacificOcean – the world is so small.’

GAURAV MISHRA‘I have relocated from Glasgow to Gottingen(Germany) with my family. My new role is Vice

Gaurav Mishra



KPMG-EMBA

DANILO CATTANEODanilo Cattaneo is starting a new job on 1 September as Managing Director of Infocert(www.infocert.it), a service company ownedby the Italian Government.

MSc in Finance

ALAN WENGER ‘Until 2009 I was working for Standard Bank Plcin London as a structured credit trader. I am now working for Investec Bank inJohannesburg as an interest rate options trader.’

MSc in IBEM

NIKOLAY DAVYDOV ‘I have quite an interesting story to tell –Marina Kuvshinova (also MSc in IBEM) and I,are now married and have a two month oldbaby. I work for a newly raised (stillfundraising) private equity fund investing inIT, new media and telecom. I am alsomanaging a couple of start-ups myself.’

YAN MA‘I am now living in China and running my ownbusiness. My company, Shiny Town Tech &Culture Co Ltd, is involved in early educationand culture exchange. After I returned toChina, I worked in Tesco China as SeniorSpecialist in Government Relations until Idecided to set up my own business.

‘Thanks to the experience in Edinburgh, Ihave achieved lots of support from that. We have two sister organisations back inEdinburgh and most of the full-time andpart-time staff in the company are my dearfriends who I came to know during my stay inScotland. I believe that my company willexplore more links based in my secondhometown: Edinburgh.’

Aneela Mohammed andBrian Davisson (bothMBA Class of 2006International) weremarried on 8 March 2010 in Thailand. Theceremony took place ona beach at The SarojinResort in Khao Lak. The couple presentlylive in Singapore.

people

WeddingbellsCONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THE HAPPY COUPLES

RIGHT: Solomon Okopi –(MBA class of 2009 full-time) and his lovely friendand partner, MarthaEkanem, were married on29 May 2010 in PortHarcourt, Rivers State,Nigeria.

Ruosha Li (MSc Financeand Investment class of2007) and Jie Shen weremarried in May 2010 inChina. The happy couplewould like to wish all thebest to their classmates!


people

38 | aluminate | October 2010 www.business-school.ed.ac.uk

ABOVE: Kalpana Vijay (MBA Class of2005 full-time) and Vijay Poduval arethrilled to announce the arrival of their son, Yohaan Vijay. Yohaan was born on 18 February 2010 inWashington DC, USA and is a newbrother for three-year-old, Ananya.

ABOVE: Neil andEliza McIntyre (bothMBA Class of 1999full-time) had a newbaby boy, Charlie, on24 March 2010, abrother for Angus,aged four. They finallyleft London in thesummer and movedto the ruralcountryside inBuckinghamshire,surrounded by fields,cows and no shops!

ABOVE: Ahmedov Mihail (MBA Class of 2002 full-time) and Elenawelcomed their baby twins, Polina and Varvara, into the world on 1 March 2010 in Moscow.

INTRODUCING THE LATEST ADDITIONS TO THE ALUMNI FAMILY...

New arrivals

ABOVE: María EugeniaSalgado (MBA Class of2003 full-time) andhusband, LeandroGentini, are delightedto introduce their babydaughter, GloriaOlimpia Gentini, whowas born on 6 January2010 in Buenos Aires,Argentina (a gift fromthe three wise men).


www.business-school.ed.ac.uk October 2010 | aluminate | 39

peopleLEFT: José Campo(MBA Class of 2005full-time) and wife,Aida Mercado,received the blessingof a healthy baby girl,Sofía Carolina Campo,on 27 May 2010. Sofía was 2.840kg (6lb 4oz), and 49cm.She was born just shyof 37 weeks and bothher and mum aredoing well.

LEFT: Andrew Pickett (MBA Class of 2008 International)and partner, Eleanor,are proud to announcethe birth of their firstdaughter, Charlotte,who was born on 26 May 2010.

ABOVE: Tim Scott (MBA Class of 2004 full-time) and Pip are delighted toannounce the birth of their newarrival, Samuel Hunter Scott,who was born on 16 April 2010in Christchurch, New Zealand.

RIGHT: Alex MacPhie (MBA Class of 2003

part-time) and Heather areproud to show off this lovely

photo of their daughter, Elin, who was born in

May 2009 in Edinburgh.


Groups of postgraduate alumni arewelcome to book places at Firbushfor a weekend break with adifference.

Activities include sailing,windsurfing, canoeing andmountain biking.

When you’re not active, relax in theNorwegian pine lodge, just yardsfrom the banks of Loch Tay.

Places are available from just £110per person, which includes twonights’ accommodation, all mealsand outdoor activities. Partners arealso welcome, though at a slightlyhigher cost.

For more details or to book,contact the Alumni Office [email protected]

BOOK AN ALUMNIWEEKEND AT FIRBUSH ANDGET ENERGISED. IT’S OPENTO GROUPS OF MBA, MSCAND PHD ALUMNI

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escape...to the great outdoors

Aluminate October 2010_p40 29/9/10 10:55 Page 40

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Aluminate October 2010 p01 NEW · the School moved to its new home. The School is now based at Buccleuch Place, just 100 metres from the old building on Bristo Square, but the School