nexus winter 2003
TRANSCRIPT
The magazine of the Warwick Business School Alumni Association Winter 2003
xne usStrategic change at WBS- new building continues evolution- focus on strategy
u
b
2 | nexus news
WBS in the news Alumni in the news
Anoop Maini (photo courtesy of Leicester Mercury).
Geoffrey Nichol.
Since graduating from WBS in July 2002,Anoop Maini (BSc ManSci 1999-02) has beenactively involved in the setting up of theNational Executive Network for Social Action(NENSA). He explains, “NENSA is anorganisation that basically empowers youngpeople to make social changes within society, bybringing together business, government andvoluntary sector organisations in a unique way.The projects are envisioned and led by youngpeople, to help create a social enterprisingculture that is championed and led by thefuture leaders of society.”
Anoop is also making a short film, as wellas collaborating on a book onEntrepreneurship. As an 18-year-old, he won hislocal borough council’s Young Citizen of theYear Award, when he set up Oadby andWigston Youth Council.
Medarex Inc appointed WBS alumnus GeoffreyNichol (DL-MBA 1991-96) as Senior VicePresident, Product Development on 9September. Medarex is a biopharmaceuticalcompany focused on the discovery anddevelopment of therapeutics to treat life-threatening and debilitating diseases.Commenting on his appointment, Dr. Nicholsaid, “I am enthusiastic to be leading productdevelopment at Medarex at such an excitingtime in the development of its monoclonalantibody therapeutics portfolio.” Dr. Nicholcomes from Novartis PharmaceuticalsCorporation, where he held the positions ofHead, Global Medical Marketing Excellence andHead, Global Project Management.
John Eary (MSOR 1971-73) is co-writer of anarticle on organising work/life balance in theSeptember issue of Training Journal, urgingpeople to stop and think about their dailyschedule. John is head of NCC Skills SourceConsultancy at The NCC Group. A WBS post-grad, he has carried out many staffing reviewsin the public and private sectors addressingorganisational and performance issues. He hasmanaged projects that have won the EuropeanTraining Technology Award and four UKawards for innovation and effectiveness. John isa regular commentator in the computer presson skills and staffing issues. e [email protected] or visit w www.nccglobal.com
An email interview with Simon Woods,currently studying for his Masters in PublicAdministration at WBS, appeared in theBirmingham Post in July 2002. Simon is ChiefExecutive of the Birmingham School of Speech& Drama. When asked what his job entails,Simon explained, “Strategy, vision and people.Essentially I see my role as a facilitator,providing my colleagues with the space andconfidence to excel. We have a very clear visionof making BSSD the best drama school inEurope.”
Lonely Planet’s founder Tony Wheeler appearedon the cover of the September issue ofAmbassador, the AMBA magazine. Aftergraduating from Warwick in 1969, Tony did anMBA at LBS and founded his company in 1972.Also featured in Ambassador is a story on WBS’snew certificate for football managers, and theGuardian’s employability table that rates WBSAlumni as ‘most employable’. g
Alumni Clive Austin (MBA 1990-91), director of3i Ireland and Hina Patel (MBA 1999-01)consultant for AT Kearney, flew the flag forWBS in interviews which appeared in theAugust issue of Mergers & Acquisitionsmagazine. In the article entitled “A good move:but are MBAs essential for corporatewannabes?”, Clive and Hina both credited theWBS MBA with helping their careers. An articleby Clive Austin on his experiences at 3iappeared in the last edition of Nexus.
WBS appeared in news and business relatedmedia between eight and ten times every weekover the past year. Articles have appeared inpublications as diverse as The Times, The WeeklyTelegraph, Gulf News, Nikkei magazine, HongKong, and Management Today, to name but afew. The WBS European MBA continues toreceive attention, as does the WBS footballmanagement course and its participants.
Financial TimesIn the FT Business Education Supplementpublished in September 2002, WBS ranked 4thout of 22 MBA programmes. Favourablemention was also made of the interest in WBS’sEuropean MBA programme, in association withthe University of Mannheim in Germany andESSEC in France.
Interest in EnterpriseA series of prominent articles by ProfessorDavid Storey, Director of WBS Centre for Small& Medium Sized Enterprises (CSME) appearedin the Financial Times recently, on issues thataffect government policymaking on SMEs. Agreat deal of interest has been received forDavid’s research on older entrepreneurs, as wellas his work on the UK’s fastest growing SMEs.His report on decline in investment in smallerquoted companies was also featured in an FTarticle.
Independent viewDean of WBS, Howard Thomas outlined hisplans to raise the School’s global profile in aninterview for The Independent on Thursday 26September. The task of making the Schoolbetter known outside European universitycircles depends on making Warwick’s definingcharacteristics, which have put it in the topEuropean business schools, famous in a widerfield. “There is a brand here (Warwick), it is abrand of innovation, excellence, cutting-edgeresearch and relevance to the corporate body,”Howard explained to the reporter.
Award winning At the prestigious annual National TrainingAwards held in London in November, WBS wona Regional Training Award for its innovativeprogramme of training for the Royal Bank ofScotland Group (RBSG).
The redesigned course combines the best offace-to-face and online delivery methods in a16-week networked programme. Now on itssixth cohort of operations managers from everypart of the RBSG, almost 90% of participantshave received the MBA-level Certificate inOperations Management from WBS. Accordingto one delegate, “The programme has enhancedmy operational control and planning and givenme a more structured approach and supporttools for work tasks.” g
WITH EVENTS IN PARIS, Oslo, Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong and New York, aswell as the celebrated WBS Academic Update held on campus, it has been anexceptionally busy and exciting autumn for the Alumni team.
WBS academics hosted alumni events around the world, co-ordinatedby alumni.
Starting in Paris, where Dr Chris Smith of the WBS Marketing &Strategic Management (MSM) group led a round-table discussion withalumni on ‘The meaning and manifestation of strategy in different cultural andorganisational contexts’. Organiser Thierry Chappe (MBA 1990-91), reported: “We had a very interesting andpassionate discussion with Chris about the meaning and purpose of strategy that all the participants thoroughlyenjoyed. This was a great event.”
In China, Dr Simon Collinson, Associate Dean (MBAs) and Senior Lecturerin International Business, hosted events in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong,(report and photos on page 15)
At an evening event in Oslo, Andrew Pettigrew, Associate Dean - Researchand Professor of Strategy & Organisation, spoke to Norwegian alumni on thesubject ‘Does leadership make a difference to organisational performance?’ Feedbackfrom organiser Per-Egill Frostmann, “Thank you for making this alumni meetinghappen - I think it was a good start. Andrew’s lecture was an interesting and tothe point, especially the prerequisites for successful change initiatives in large
organisations which were particularly relevant.” ‘Are you happy? Job Satisfaction and Work-Life Balance in the United States
and Europe’ was the topic discussed when Professor Andrew Oswald, therenowned Warwick economist, hosted a popular event for alumni in New
York City on 5 November.Organiser Ranan Lachmanconfirmed, “It was an excellentmeeting, with around thirtypeople attending and taking theopportunity to join in thediscussion.”
Back on campus, 100alumni and guests attended the eagerly awaited WBS AcademicUpdate, entitled ‘New economy - new ways of organising?’ on 19 October
at Radcliffe House. Four WBS academics, John McGee, Simon Croom,Jacky Swan and Leslie Willcocks spoke on a variety of topics including Supply
Chain and E-business. Following his address, Dean Howard Thomas joined alumni and current MBA students fordiscussion over lunch. “An excellent Academic Update, it was good to have the mind stretched again,” confirmedalumnus Clive South (EMBA 1996-99). “A unifying theme and four different departments certainly made for avaried day.” “I benefited from meeting people, seeing friends and learning about the topics discussed. LeslieWillcocks’ presentation was particularly interesting,” added Alex Clark (MBA 2000-01). g
alumni events nexus | 3
Growing excitement diary dates
Lisa Wickham-Branche (MBA 1996-97), TV presenter from Trinidad & Tobagowith Emily Fay, Alumni Manager and Richard Sammy, FTMBA. Mike Porteous (MA IR 1988-90), HR Director, British Airways, also visitedcampus in November to present to MA IR students.
Parisian alumni discuss strategy.
Academic update draws 100 alumni.
New Yorkers debate work/life balance.
Leading the way in Oslo.
MBA Refresher 2003Images of Strategy, Images of the FirmDates: 2-5 February 2003Venue: Radcliffe House,University of Warwick
London Evening SeminarLeadership and OrganisationSpeaker: Professor Andrew PettigrewDate: 4 February 2003Venue: Prudential plc, London EC4
The Warwick Debate Speakers: Sir David Tweedie,Chair of the InternationalAccounting Standards Board and Peter Wyman, President of ICAEWChair: Professor Keith Hoskin,Warwick Business SchoolDate: 3 March 2003Venue: Warwick Business School
International MBA RefresherNew Issues in InterculturalManagementDates: 22-25 April 2003Venue: The Hotel Ambassador, Paris
First Annual Warwick Business School DinnerHosted by: Lord Jeff Rooker(MA Industrial Relations 1971-72)Date: 8 May 2003Venue: House of Lords, London
MBA Summer Ball11 July 2003Warwick Business School
Regional UK Events
London7 February & 7 March 2003
MidlandsBirmingham6 February 2003
Oxford17 January 2003
Forthcoming eventsA PACKED PROGRAMME OF events isplanned for 2003: starting with aWomen’s Group seminar, with guestspeaker alumna Dame SheilaMcKechnie (MA Industrial Relations1970-72), director of the ConsumersAssociation; London EveningSeminar, sponsored by ThePrudential, speaker Professor AndrewPettigrew, to be held 4 February; ajoint AMBA event with Sir DavidTweedie in March; and the first everAnnual WBS dinner at the House ofLords, hosted by Lord Jeff Rooker(MA Industrial Relations 1971-72) inMay; to name but a few. g
Visitors to campus
Full listing of events and onlinebooking at the WBS web site:www.wbs.ac.uk/alumni/
4 | nexus
in this issueHealth assured - strategy at BUPA 6 Strategising/organising in the modern organisation 8Dynamic capabilities in a time of radical change 11 Alumni profile - Warwick Insight 13Value-based marketing 14 Advantage China? 15 Careers 17
THIS EDITION OF NEXUS focuses on the subject of strategic management, with a series of articles whichreveal the extent and quality of research and teaching in this field at Warwick. There are also a few articlesfrom WBS alumni, showing how they used some of the knowledge gained at Warwick to develop theirown corporate strategy.
Warwick has been at the forefront of work on strategy for several years. Andrew Pettigrew’s workthrough the Centre of Creativity, Strategy and Change, developed Warwick’s reputation in the processual
field of strategy and others (including Peter Doyle, JohnMcGee, Howard Thomas and Robin Wensley) havecontributed to a wide range of research on competitivestrategy.
In this particular issue, Andrew Pettigrew and DavidWilson have pointed out the manner in which the field of
strategy is changing and must keep on changing to take account of the processes of strategising in themodern organisation. Their short articles demonstrate not only their own work but the considerableefforts achieved by both of them in developing major books in the field of strategy over the last few years.
Andrew Pettigrew led the development of a major review of the field entitled Handbook of Strategy andManagement, Sage Publications, 2001 (with Howard Thomas, WBS and Richard Whittington, Oxford)and David Wilson has co-edited a book with Stephen Cummings called Images of Strategy, which critiquesmany modern strategy theories and raises a whole series of questions about the strategy field. Both bookshave a European multi-disciplinary perspective and reflect the School’s view on the field of strategy.
Peter Doyle’s article on value-based marketing reflects the importance of his work in the whole area of value-based strategic management andplanning. Peter’s reputation as a teacher, researcher and consultant precedes him and his recent book on value-based marketing has beenextremely well-received by academics and practitioners alike. Simon Collinson and Qing Wang focus on the issue of developing capabilities forcompetitive advantage - Simon in the context of China and Qing, more generally, in relating dynamic capabilities to the radical changes broughtabout by new technologies. Their on-going research work reflects the competitive capabilities, core competences and competitive advantage focusof some of the WBS strategy research.
Two articles by former students reflect strategy development in digital pay television broadcasting and in strategic change consulting. Theyillustrate how MBA students at Warwick worked with faculty and others to build corporate strategy in their own organisations.
The Chair of the School’s Board, Val Gooding (BUPA’s Chief Executive Officer), presented her company strategy to an audience of students and faculty recently in the Business School. The synthesis of her talk shows clearly a theme stressed by Andrew Pettigrew, namely, that manycompanies see their strategy and organisational model as one and the same.
Obviously, there is other work in the strategy field being undertaken at Warwick in areaswhich include David Storey’s leadership inresearch on entrepreneurship through thecentre for Small and Medium-sizedEnterprises, research on the strategic useof mergers and acquisitions and, moregenerally, in international strategy. A newdevelopment in the public/private area is afocus on good citizenship through work on corporate citizenship, corporate socialresponsibility and the design of public/private sector partnerships. This work is undertakenthrough association with the School’s Local Government Centre and its CorporateCitizenship Unit.
I hope you enjoy these articles - they reflect the tradition of cutting edge research andteaching excellence which Warwick Business School encourages and on which it wishes tobuild over succeeding years. I encourage you to become more involved with WBS and itsAlumni Association, and to consider contributing to the School through the WBS Fund forAcademic Excellence, which seeks to expand income streams to enable us to developfacilities, research and faculty quality over the next several years. g
Howard Thomas
‘Many companies see theirstrategy and organisationalmodel as one and the same.’
‘Warwick has been at the forefront of work
on strategy.’
Dean’s Foreword
MBE honour
LINDA DICKENS, PROFESSOR OF IndustrialRelations at WBS, recently received her MBEfrom Prince Charles at a Buckingham PalaceInvestiture. The MBE was conferred in theQueen’s Jubilee Honours List for her ‘services toemployment relations.’ Linda has since beenappointed to chair The Pay Commission forLocal Government Services’ Staff. g
nexus | 5
PROFESSOR ANDREW PETTIGREW, AssociateDean of Research and Professor of Strategy &Organisation at WBS, received the prestigiousDistinguished Scholar Award from the USAcademy of Management in August 2002.
As the first European to be awarded thehonour in its 20-year history, this represented asupreme accolade. Andrew explains, “This is
not just an awardfor a particularpiece of researchbut a lifetimecareer award,recognising workdone over 30 years.
It also signifies US recognition that Europeanmanagement research can be world-class.”
Andrew feels strongly that this award putsWarwick Business School into the premierleague of research led business schools inEurope and the same league as the top
American business schools. Previous winners come from US universitiessuch as Harvard, Stanford, Wharton,
Michigan and Yale and include such notable scholars as Herbert Simon, James March, Alfred Chandler, Oliver
Williamson, Karl Weick, Chris Argyris, and Rosabeth Kanter. According to
Andrew, “These people are an extraordinarily distinguished
group - to be included in that reference group is a very
great honour.”
Andrew’s research style has involved thedetailed analysis of change, governance andperformance processes in organisations overseveral levels of analysis and over long periodsof time. This approach has not mirrored thepredominant style of research in the USA buthas challenged it. Andrew feels that the kinds ofknowledge deriving from this style of researchmake for an easy transition into the classroom.“The development of management of change inWBS and now the area of strategy and practicehas been driven by this kind of research. Manyalumni will have experienced this in classes theytook here,” he affirms.
When presenting the award, the Chair ofthe Committee, Professor Joanne Martin of theGraduate School of Management, StanfordUniversity in California, praised Andrew’sachievements, “This year’s winner blends arespect for theory with love of data and jugglesa concern for scholarly precision with abidingcommitment to helping organisations functionmore effectively and humanely.” g
‘This is not just an award for a particularpiece of research but a lifetime career
award, recognising work done over 30 years.’
Professor Joanne Martin, Stanford University,
presenting the Distinguished Scholar
Award to Professor Andrew Pettigrew at
the annual meeting of the US Academy of Management in Denver, Colorado, in
August 2002.
highest honourBY PAM BARNES
assuredhealthWARWICK ALUMNA VAL GOODING, CEO of BUPA, presented hercompany strategy to Warwick MBA and other postgraduatestudents in October. Val, named the UK’s fourth most powerfulwoman in August’s Management Today, delineated where BUPA’sproblems lay when she joined the company in 1998 and how, infour years, she had turned the company around.
The problems sounded familiar to students already delvinginto case studies as part of their course. Although BUPA iscurrently the UK’s largest private health insurance and healthservices provider with 40% of the private health insurance market,when Val took over as CEO the company was stagnant with lowprofits, poor systems, dropping staff morale, and it was losingcustomers.
When she arrived at BUPA, Val chose to focus on theorganisational culture. As Andrew Pettigrew explains in his articlein this magazine, many companies see their strategy and theirorganisational model as one and the same.
“Organisational structure has to work by serving the customerwell, at the same time as the interests of the organisation,” Valexplained when interviewed for Human Resources magazine inSeptember.
BUPA’s UK insurance arm is its largest business. When Valarrived, the culture was a traditional insurer’s: inward-looking,focusing on rules and probabilities and numbers. Althoughcustomers were treated politely, they were dealt with by the rules,regardless of how they might be feeling in the midst of a healthcrisis.
Val worked with staff to put in place a culture of servingcustomers which now permeates the entire company. She did thisto increase customer satisfaction with BUPA, but also to raise staffmorale. In order to serve customers well, BUPA employees have toenjoy and believe in what they are doing.
A management training programme called ‘Leading One Life’was implemented which focused on continuous improvement, butalso on staff concerns and staff working with each other to developways of better serving customers.
Val also improved thesystems at BUPA so thatcall-centres, for example,could easily access recordswhen customers phonedin. BUPA invested heavilyin the call-centres withsoft fabrics; curved desksto encourage teamsupport, staff restaurantand recreational facilities,and a room for people torecover from a difficultcall. The investment wassignificant but morale ismuch higher andcustomers notice thedifference in speed andservice when they phone in.
All of this has to be measured through complaint monitoring,and health outcomes: how initial calls were dealt with, howquickly was a patient seen, diagnosed, treated and how successfulwas that treatment.
Through investing in people, systems, processes and newproducts, the improved service, customer retention, growth insales and profits have all been achieved. g
‘Organisational structure has to work byserving the customer well, at the sametime as the interests of the organisation.’
Val Gooding’s presentation to students was part of theWarwick MBA Forum series which brings CEO-level speakersto campus to talk to students. Previous presenters include:Sir Nick Scheele, Chief Operating Officer of the Ford MotorCompany, and George Cox, Director General of the Instituteof Directors. Val also serves as Chair of the Warwick BusinessSchool Board.
Val Gooding, CEO, BUPA.
6 | nexus
BY EMILY FAY
focus on strategy | 7
imagesof Strategy
IMAGES OF STRATEGY IS edited by ProfessorDavid Wilson and WBS Alumnus, ProfessorStephen Cummings, and contains contributionsfrom the editors as well as from most of WBS’sMSM Department and some past members ofthe Department.
“Our book has a European, multi-disciplinary perspective and a Warwick voicewhich makes it different and exciting,” saysWBS’s David Wilson, explaining why this bookmoves the field of strategy on. “It also considersthe problems of implementation as at leastequal to problems of analysis,” David continues,“indeed, the problems of putting strategy intopractice have been some of the major challengesfaced by strategic management.” Finally thebook steps outside traditional managementdisciplines and incorporates views on strategydrawn from history, philosophy, theatre andmedia studies.
Traditionally, the field of strategy has beendominated by material from the United Statesand has been predominantly about planningand analytical frameworks. Strategy has beenabout finding and exploiting the gaps betweenbalance and imbalance for financial gain. Withsome notable exceptions (for example the workof Henry Mintzberg and colleagues) traditionalmaterial has generally concentrated onplanning and analysis.
“Our book is European and skewed towards thepractice of strategy. It locates strategyhistorically - from the Greeks onward,” explainsDavid. “This approach to strategy can be acapstone to a range of organisation issues - all ofwhich are currently taught separately - but theImages approach shows how closely you can mixa range of teaching disciplines. It will persuadestudents to think about strategy andmanagement in an inter-disciplinary way andshould persuade those who teach it around theworld to expand their vision.”
The original idea had been to have a casestudy at the end of the book to which all theauthors provided a view from their ownperspective. However, in another twist ontraditional immobile texts, it was decided toinclude the case study but to have the authors’views of it on a web page. In this way theauthors can update their views over time. Theycan feed in current research thought, as well ascomments and arguments they receive fromreaders of the book.
Unlike most strategy books, Images concludeswith a chapter that gives a vigorous critique ofmany assumptions that underpin traditionalstrategic theories and it raises a whole series ofquestions. The web site will allow dialoguebetween readers and authors to develop. g
A book that could radically change how the field ofstrategy is viewed, taught and researched, has beenwritten by members of Warwick Business School’sMarketing and Strategic Management Group.
Creativity and strategyOne of the case studies included in DavidWilson’s book Images of Strategy, concerns MattHardisty. Matt worked as a ‘coolhunter’,helping companies identify what would be ‘cool’in a few years’ time, before commencing the MAin Creative and Media Enterprises at Warwick.While at Warwick and subsequently he formedtwo new companies: folkdevil.com and NakedCommunications.
“What we do at Naked is to help our clientsthink of themselves as not contained withintraditional boundaries or channels,” explainsMatt. “We network a web of channels into adynamic family that helps develop complexrelationships with customers to convey a senseof something truly different in order to capturepeople’s imagination.” His companies bringcreative entrepreneurs together, maintaining
‘Images of Strategy is amust read.’
Some of the ‘Images’ authors at work (from left) Dr Chris Smith, Professor John McGee, Professor AndrewPettigrew, Dr Duncan Angwin and Professor David Wilson.
their independence and creativity but allowingthem to market as a group.
For example, a radio station, a ticket sellerand clothing labels all share what Matt calls a‘tribal frequency’ and can benefit from creatinga brand equity. They can market through theinternet together, benefiting the sites theymarket through, but with all of theentrepreneurs maintaining their ownindependence.
“The individualised approach is difficult fortraditional strategists to map and Imagesexplores this. People at senior levels in mediaindustries create a real challenge for strategiststo understand,” explains David Wilson.“However, we have a lot to learn from eachother and this widening of the boundaries ofstrategy can only be positive for strategists.” gR Edward Freeman, Darden University of Virginia
THE NEW EMPHASIS FIRST of all redefinesstructure and relabels it with the broader labelof organisation. In this formulation,organisation still includes the form of theorganisation but also now incorporates a newpreoccupation with the relationship betweenform, processes, systems and organisationalboundaries. With this new more inclusive view,organisation moves from being the poor cousinof strategy to being an equal partner. As JohnBrowne, the CEO of BP has put it ‘Our strategy
is our organisation’ (Organising for Growth byJonathan Day, The McKinsey Quarterly,
2001, Number 2,4-5). Others may notyet be prepared to go this far but thereis certainly a wider recognition thanever before that strategy andorganisation form an inseparableduality.
Secondly, our latest research oninnovative forms of organising makes itclear that static nouns can no longercapture the realities of how many firmsare attempting to make and executestrategy. We prefer therefore to use themore active verbs of strategising andorganising to capture these moredynamic processes of setting directionand executing that direction.Strategising and organising are nowbetter characterised as continuousprocesses than as mechanisticmovement from one state or conditionto another.
What is driving the new emphasison Strategising/Organising?
As ever, big questions are rarelyanswered by single causes. There appears
to be a convergence of factors economic,technological, informational and politicaldriving the emergence of innovative forms oforganising. Heightened internationalcompetition, efficiency drives to reduce costs,pressures to concentrate manufacturingresources regionally and to simplify complexmatrix structures are all impacting firms.
8 | focus on strategy
strategising/organising in the modern organisation
The field of strategy has changed and must keep changing. We havemoved from an era when strategy was much about static notions ofthe competitive position of the firm, to an era when strategy isfundamentally an innovation contest where the bureaucratic andinflexible will not survive. In this era, the old dictum that strategydrives structure has been superseded by a new emphasis on therelationship between strategy and organisation.
ANDREW PETTIGREWPROFESSOR OF STRATEGY & ORGANISATIONASSOCIATE DEAN RESEARCHWARWICK BUSINESS SCHOOL
Technological change is shortening productlife cycles and pressuring firms to buildorganisations with greater flexibility. Advancesin information technology and communicationsare enabling network formation. This facilitatesutilisation and permits a quality and quantity ofhierarchical control and lateral knowledgesharing previously considered impossible.These changes in organising have oftenachieved their objective of creating greaterorganisational flexibility and sometimescreativity but one of the knock-on effects hasbeen to challenge some of the old orthodoxiesof what strategy is and how it should be madeand executed. The direction of change at thismoment in time appears to vary from firm tofirm.
In many firms large planningdepartments havelong sincebeendismantledbut a form ofplanning maystill exist. Inrejectingrigorous annualplanning cyclesfirms have alsorejected themechanistic viewof strategy thatunderpinned thenumerically basedstrategy process ofthe past. With thedemise ofmechanistic planningprocesses has alsocome scepticism oflong distance or bluesky strategy making.Firms may also bequerying old distinctionsbetween strategy and operations and seeking to
put in place a strategy process which is alive toboth managerial requirements. So theorganising/strategising duality iscomplemented by the strategy/operationsduality.
But what is emerging in the vacuum createdby the challenge to the old strategyorthodoxies?
nexus | 9
Warwick research suggests no simple pattern ofnovel practices. Instead firms are experimentingwith different views of what strategy is andlearning by doing as they try out alternativemechanisms to make strategy on a continuousbasis. So one can see within the same firm
annual budgetary processes that incorporatesome hints of strategy co-existing alongside
meta level strategy thinking atthe very top of the firm.
One company hasdescribed the outputs of thismeta level thinking as thecreation of a set of rules orprinciples which provide anongoing systematic bias totop decision makingprocesses. These biasesbecome crucial in shapingdirection. They help insetting priorities, inspotting issues fordecision making and infiltering out strategicinitiatives whichemerge fromincreasinglydecentralisingbusiness units.
The strategy/operations dualitycreates its owndemands and its
own dynamic. The blurring of thedistinction between strategy and operationsmeans that the effective CEO has to be mindfuland effective at both. John Browne has certainly
achieved this in BPand so has NiallFitzgerald inUnilever. It isnoteworthy that inboth of theseorganisations,strategising skills are
as important as organisation developmentskills. In both organisations there is a history inrecent times of clear target setting andachievement. The strategic and the operationalare well aligned and well aligned on acontinuous basis and not just at one moment intime.
‘Strategy is fundamentally an innovationcontest where the bureaucratic andinflexible will not survive.’
Further reading
The Handbook of Strategy and Management(Pettigrew, Thomas and Whittington,2002) provides an up-to-date and criticalassessment of most of the existing fields ofstrategy and at the same time helps todevelop some new sub fields in thediscipline. The recent research studypublished, The Innovating Organisation(Pettigrew and Fenton, 2000) offers a firstlook at the European findings of a globalstudy of new forms of organising andcompany performance. The sequel to thisbook Innovative Forms of Organising(Pettigrew et al, 2003) provides asummative account of the research andcompares innovative forms in Europe,Japan and the USA.
Andrew Pettigrew and Evelyn Fenton(Eds) The Innovating Organisation,London, Sage Publications, 2000.
Andrew Pettigrew, Howard Thomas andRichard Whittington (Eds) The Handbookof Strategy and Management, London, SagePublications, 2002.
Andrew Pettigrew et al (Eds) InnovativeForms of Organising, London, SagePublications, 2003.
Richard Whittington et al (1999) Changeand Complementarities in the NewCompetitive Landscape, OrganisationScience, (1999) 10.5: 583-600.
The modern firm is seeking to empowerand hold the ring, to be simultaneouslydecentralising and centralising. This duality iscreating complex political dynamics in themulti business firm. A lot of these dynamics arefocused around and triggered by the loose-tight
nature of the emergentstrategy processes inmany of those firms.Different businessunits within the samefirm often havedifferent cycle times,different markets and
resources and varying views about and needsfor strategic thinking. They may also havedifferent views about what issues are worthy oforganisational attention, prioritisation andresourcing. The spotting and resolution of theseissues then becomes a focal point for strategicleadership, an issue which I hope to return to ina forthcoming issue of Nexus. g
‘Evidence of forward looking criticalreflection is much part of the strategygroup at Warwick.’
10 | nexus strategy
HAVING WORKED IN THE Digital Pay-TV Broadcasting industry as a softwaredevelopment engineer, product and project manager since 1995, I was fascinatedby the top players in the pay-TV business and wanted to understand and learnfrom their most successful strategies. During this summer I had the opportunity todo my dissertation as part of an MBA Consultancy Project in the StrategicPlanning Group of one of the most successful pay-TV operators in Europe, BritishSky Broadcasting (BSkyB).
Pay-TV has been available in the UK for over a decade and is leading the way indigital TV. There are currently some 10.2 million pay-TV subscribers in the UK,almost 45% of the entire TV households.
The potential is clear. Digital transmission opens the way for many morechannels, including interactive services and telecom applications. The challengefor BSkyB is to make it pay. Most other operators so far have tried and failed - notonly in Britain but also throughout Europe. Today, BSkyB is the premier pay-TVcompany with more than 6 million satellite subscribers (see fig 1). By exploitingthe digital shift in Britain more than any other company, BSkyB has underlined itsclaim to be the pay-TV business model, in the UK and across Europe.
Having stated that, my MBA consultancy project focused on BSkyB’s successfulbusiness model and its underlying strategic success factors. The project analysedhow BSkyB triumphed so quickly and so completely by looking at both thecompany’s analogue and digital business in greater depth.
Since pay-TV operators, and in particular BSkyB, are dealing not only withinformation and its programming, but also increasingly with sophisticatedtechnologies, a new framework was introduced to review BSkyB’s strategicstrengths with respect to the information economy. Four strategic levels weresystematically examined - a framework developed by John McGee, Professor ofStrategic Management (see fig 2): � consumer network� physical platforms� supply chain� technology standards
Using interviews withmanagers within BSkyB anddocumentary data collection, the primary research has highlighted specific butquite diverse strategic key success factors for both BSkyB’s analogue era from 1989to 1997 and BSkyB’s digital business success until now.
In addition, it was found that these factors are part of a more complete pictureof BSkyB’s strategic success, an overall ‘Sky formula’. Focused on the most essentialstrategic key issues, the formula supports BSkyB’s current ambition ‘Sky to everyhousehold’:� build penetration� build average revenue per user� minimise churn
Due to the company’s ambitious targets in the future, BSkyB’s strategy mustleverage the company’s assets to a new, unprecedented level of growth. However,the ‘Sky formula’ will need to overcome key challenges in the future mainly relatedto issues such as content, technology and policy, since these topics are always asource of threat in the information economy.
Although BSkyB’s business is part of the new economy, the maincharacteristics of positive feedback, such as lock-in effects, network effects and/ordemand-side economies of scale were not really relevant for the company’s success.However, some mechanisms of positive feedback are starting to kick-off and may
enlarge BSkyB’s subscriberbase further.
Overall, BSkyB hasbeen spectacularlysuccessful, not once buttwice. Its ‘Sky formula’ hasworked brilliantly so far.Even if history is not anindicator of futureperformance, BSkyB’s past
success and its strategic key success factors will help the company to remain theUK’s leading pay-TV company. The question of future sustainable growthnevertheless remains open. g
skyhigh
‘Overall BSkyB has beenspectacularly successful,not once but twice.’
‘You may not want it but you will beunable to avoid the service because
soon every home in Britain will havea Sky TV channel beamed into it.’
CHRISTIAN HOEFTERPROGRAMME MANAGER BETARESEARCH/KIRCHGRUPPEFULL-TIME MBA 2001-02
BSky
B (B
rita
in)
subscribers in millions
Strategic levels Concepts
ConsumerNetwork
PhysicalPlatforms
SupplyChain
TechnologyStandards
Network externalitiesExpectations managementCustomer lock-in & switching costs
Open vs closed platformBuild alliances for positive feedbackTechnology lock-in & switching costs
Open vs closed value chainsAlliances & collaborationSupplier lock-in & switching costs
Versioning of standardsEvolution vs revolutionCosts of switching standards
Cana
l + (F
ranc
e)
Cana
l + (E
urop
e ex
Fra
nce)
Kic
hPay
TV (G
erm
any)
NTL
(Bri
tian)
Soge
cabl
e (S
pain
)
Tele
pui (
Ital
y)
Tele
wes
t (Br
itain
)
TPS
(Fra
nce)
Via
Dig
ital (
Spai
n)
Stre
am (I
taly
)
6.1
5.14.9
2.4 2.32.0
1.61.3 1.1
0.8 0.7
Fig. 2Strategic levels of network industries
Tony Ball, CE of BSkyB
Fig. 1
nexus strategy | 11
IN A TIME OF radical change brought about by new technologies such as Internet protocol and digitaltechnology, firms need to acquire new capabilities in order to stay competitive. An on-going researchinitiative led by Dr Qing Wang at Warwick Business School in collaboration with SPRU at SussexUniversity found that a primary goal of firms when facing such radical change was to simplify.
These new technologies are so-called General Purpose Technologies (GPT), which involve highfixed costs in invention and low marginal costs in reproduction. The expenses associated with findingapplications for them are determined by the costs of co-development with localised users. The users,who may be individual consumers or institutions, will beinterested in the services performed and the supportinginfrastructures. Therefore radical change is defined not interms of change in technical characteristics, but in termsof the discontinuous consequences to the consumers. It ischaracterised by a sudden increase in complexity alongtwo dimensions. The invention of a GPT representscomplexity in depth, whereas its integration with thelocalised and idiosyncratic infrastructure and consumerdemographics denotes complexity in breadth.
To understand the implications for firms, we need toturn to the demand side of this equation. The inventionof a GPT may result in a rapid increase in the producercapacity, for instance the capacity to provide speedy andpotentially unlimited access to information. However,this rapid increase in capacity will not be sustainablewithout matching demand from the consumers.Meanwhile, matching consumer demand for radicalinnovations is difficult. In many instances, this involves aprocess of co-evolving and co-learning between theproducers and the consumers. The salient question ishow to solve the tension between capacity and varietythat is inherent at this intersection. Firms which haveinvested heavily in a GPT may find themselves sitting onunutilised capacity with the painful realisation that thecapability that enabled them to occupy a leading positionin a GPT, would not automatically give them theadvantage when developing user-related applications.
A closer look at the consumer behaviour in adoptingradical innovation will indicate that the answer lies in the marketing capability. Satisfying one’s ever-evolving demand is not without cost to individual consumers, as it requires learning about newproduct categories, often through inference to existing categories. As radical innovations representmental leaps, inference to existing categories can be very difficult for potential users. In such events,there exists a strong “learning-through-using” effect where a significant amount of new productknowledge is acquired during rather than prior to using a new product. Consequently, consumers’perceptions and preferences are expected to change continuously through using.
Our research findings have at least twoimplications. Firstly, continuousinvolvement with users and developing longterm relationships with valued customers isone, if not the only, effective way of buildingcompetitive advantage. Secondly, brandingand labelling can be extremely powerful in
influencing consumer perception of a radically new product towards more familiar categories. Forexample, the application of digital technology in image processing has resulted in several new product categories, one of which is the digital camera. Its adoption is largely enabled by the perceived similarity of functional and aesthetic design to the analogue camera, which is carefully crafted into the new product.
To conclude, firms will have significant competitive advantage in the new markets if they incorporate critical technical and user knowledge into the new application in such a way that it simplifies the learning requirement for the consumers. The ability to identify such critical knowledge and to incorporate it into the design and development of new applications constitutes the dynamic capability of firms in a time of radical change. g
DR QING WANGLECTURER IN MARKETING & STRATEGIC MANAGEMENTWARWICK BUSINESS SCHOOL
dynamic capabilitiesin a time of radical change
Further reading
Wang and von Tunzelmann Complexity and thefunctions of the firm: breadth and depth, ResearchPolicy, 2000, Vol. 29, 805-818.
von Tunzelmann and Wang Capabilities andProduction Theory, Structural Change andEconomic Dynamics, 2003
von Tunzelmann and Wang Dynamiccapabilities in the context of radical change,Journal of Management Studies, (in revision).
‘The question is how to solvethe tension between capacity
and variety.’
12 | nexus
The WarwickDebateAS STOCK MARKETS ARE plumbing successive lows, the warnings of double-dip recession and an era ofdeflation are getting louder. Even if the current wave of audit scandals has so far been US-based, the loss ofcredibility for the audit and accountancy profession has been worldwide.
There is consequently a renewed interest inthe importance of regulation for the conduct oforderly markets and the enforcement ofrigorous audit across the corporate world. Thefuture of regulation and of the accountancyprofession has therefore become of more thanspecialist interest.
So it is with great pleasure that weannounce a joint AMBA-Warwick BusinessSchool event to be held on 3rd March atWarwick Business School on these themes. SirDavid Tweedie, the Chair of the InternationalAccounting Standards Board, will be thekeynote speaker at The Warwick Debate. Hewill be joined by Peter Wyman, chairman of theUK’s Institute of Chartered Accountants and asenior partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Theevent will be chaired by Professor Keith Hoskin,of the WBS Accounting and Finance group.
The Warwick Debate will be held on 3rdMarch 2003 at Radcliffe House, University ofWarwick.
For more details w www.wbs.ac.uk/alumni/forthcoming.cfm g
Hot off the PressThe Handbook ofStrategy andManagement(Pettigrew, Thomasand Whittington,2002) provides anup-to-date andcritical assessmentof most of theexisting fields ofstrategy and at
the same time helpsto develop some new sub fields in
the discipline.
Images of Strategy, edited by ProfessorsDavid Wilson and Stephen Cummings,will be published byBlackwell in March2003. Containscontributions fromthe editors as wellas from most ofWBS’s MSMDepartment andsome pastmembers of theDepartment.
Sir David Tweedie.
Designed by the Tate Modern architects, phases one and two of the new WBS building have been completed and the Dean anticipates commencing phase three in the near future.
WBS HAS TEAMED UP with Knowledge Horizon, aUnited Arab Emirates-based education agencyrecognised by the UAE Ministry of HigherEducation and Scientific Research, to promotethe Warwick MBA. The first intake of students,initially numbering around 25-30 and recruitedfrom the UAE, will begin study by distance andonline learning in January 2003.
Dr Ma’en Al Qatamin is Managing Directorof Knowledge Horizon and studied for hisdoctorate at WBS. He explained: “We are proudto be associated with a name of quality such asWBS. The Warwick MBA is globally recognisedand internationally accredited, and WBS haswon acclaim and approval from all the leadingnational and international assessors andaccreditation bodies.” g
WBS in Dubai partnership
WBS building continues evolution
alumni profile | 13
iinnssiigghhttWarwickfrom house to mouse
RICHARD WYATT-HAINES (DLMBA 1997) and Simon Ricketts (DLMBA 1998)named their company Warwick Insight, reflecting their strong links with WBS.“We owe a lot to Warwick and are proud of the place,” affirms Richard.
Established in 1998, their consulting practice focuses on strategy, strategicchange and organisation performance management. Their relationship withclients is very much a partnership approach. As Richard explains, “Withstrategy and strategic change,there is always stress and painto be suffered. Clients needsomeone alongside them in apartnership role with theenthusiasm and experience tosupport them through.”
Richard firmly endorsesAndrew Pettigrew’s views onthe changing role of strategy. “Strategy is about a way of behaving, it is notabout a document. It is about how you think and behave within anorganisation, so that people understand the reason for their role and how it fits
into the strategic direction of the business. There cannot be a five-year plan intoday’s environment; traditional planning methods can constrain and lead to
missed opportunities. Strategy must be used as an enabler and decision making filter, rather than aconstraint.”
Simon and Richard strongly believe in keeping up to date with academic thinking at Warwick. “We takeacademic thinking and ideas and bring them alive and make them practical for clients,” says Richard. “Theworld is dynamic and academics enable us all to see the issues and make sense of the chaos. At Warwick
Insight we take that clarity and deploy it appropriately and sensitively tocreate value for the client. Warwick gives us that foundation by providingaccess to leading edge thinking and approaches to strategy and changemanagement.”
The Warwick association features strongly in the story of theirpartnership. Although they both did their MBA by Distance Learning atWBS, they had never met until Simon’s CV arrived on Richard’s desk at his
previous employers, an accountancy practice. With the Warwick connection, Richard said, “I just had to meethim.” The two hit it off immediately but soon found working within an accountancy firm too constraining.
From very small beginnings, working out of Richard’s back bedroom and the cupboard under Simon’sstairs; four years later their team of eight is based in the South-West on the edge of Dartmoor, in premiseswith meeting, training and planning facilities. They consult for clients such as Walt Disney (Europe, MiddleEast and Africa), Liverpool Victoria, Department of Health, the Financial Services Authority and mostrecently, an investment bank in Russia.
The WBS magic worked again when, on a course run by Robert Johnston of the WBS OperationsManagement Group, they met a delegate from Disney. Richard explains, “She asked us to do a singleworkshop and from there it has grown into business with four or five divisions. It was a massive leap for us.Last year we doubled our income and we hope to increase by 50% again this year. Recommendations andrepeat business form the bulk of our work and over this year we have gained several blue chip clients.”
Richard and Simon agree, “The biggest constraint to our growth is the availability of the right people withthe right behaviours and experience. Highly bespoke consulting demands people with a special mindset andthe ability to draw client sensitive solutions from both practical and academic experience and knowledge.Perhaps there are other WBS students and alumni who feel they have what it takes...”
Check out their web site on w www.warwick-insight.co.uk g
BY PAM BARNES
‘We are taking academic thinking andideas and making sure we bring them
alive and make them practical for clients.’
‘The world is dynamic andacademics enable us tosee the issues and makesense of the chaos.’
Simon and Richard with that mouse.
14 | nexus
MARKS AND SPENCER RECENTLY illustrated theparadoxical position of marketing in today’sbusiness. The chairman emphasised a renewedfocus on a deeper understanding of M&S’sconsumers and responding to their needs. Atthe same time the company announced it wasremoving its marketing director from the boardas it had decided it no longer needed amarketing specialist at board level.
Most companies are like this. Fewcompanies have a marketing director on theboard. They agree that marketing is the key tocorporate strategy but are not convinced thatmarketing professionals have much to offer, atleast in top management.
The most important marketing decisions -the choice of target markets, what products tosell and how to price, service and distributethem - tend to be taken by managers fromoutside the marketing function. They are takenby accountants, operations managers or humanresource professionals. All too often marketingis seen as a communications function - the jobof marketing is merely to look after advertising,PR and media. Consequently marketing is not agreat route to the top - only 13 percent ofcompanies have a chief executive with amarketing background.
I believe the major reason for the failure ofmarketing to have an impact at the top level isits lack of rational objectives. When askedabout their objectives, marketing directorsinvariably say their marketing strategy aims toincrease sales or consumer awareness. Butexperienced chief executives know that suchgoals make no sense in either theory or practice.They lead to the acquisition of unprofitablecustomers, excessive marketing budgets andinadequate margins. Anyone can increasemarket share if they cut prices enough.
PETER DOYLEPROFESSOR OF MARKETING & STRATEGIC MANAGEMENTWARWICK BUSINESS SCHOOL
marketingvalue-based to start by aligning marketing objectives to
corporate goals. Today every chief executive of apublic company knows that his or her numberone goal is shareholder value. As a recent surveyby Business Week put it, “The task of the CEO issimplicity itself - get the share price up. Period.”Today, the average tenure of a chief executive isonly 18 months. Unless CEOs demonstrate thatthey are putting in place policies to increaseshareholder value they, and their companies,become quickly vulnerable.
This priority impacts directly on marketing.Unless marketing directors can demonstratethat their strategies are contributing to the goalof creating shareholder value, they becomemarginalised, as at Marks and Spencer. There isno room on the board for managers who canonly talk about sales, awareness and customersatisfaction.
The task of marketing is to developstrategies that maximise value for shareholders.Shareholder value is a function, not of sales, butof long-term free cash flows. In other words,marketing professionals need to forecast notonly the sales effects of their strategies but alsotheir cost and investment implications. Theresulting free cash flows then need to bediscounted by the business’ cost of capital tocalculate the net present value of the marketingstrategy.
Value-based marketing promises to revolutionise marketing by givingmarketing professionals the tools for demonstrating the central role ofmarketing in corporate strategy and the creation of value for shareholders.
Similarly consumer awareness will alwaysrise if you spend more on advertising. But thereare few examples of long-term business beingbuilt on the back of cut-throat prices and highmarketing spending.
If marketing professionals are going to wina place around the boardroom table they need
nexus international | 15
THERE IS A BIG question currently facing not only our WBS alumni based in the China region,but also facing senior decision makers in top global corporations. How will China emerge fromthis period of rapid economic growth and institutionalrestructuring? In the corporate world the liberalisation ofthe Chinese mainland market is not only seen as anenormous opportunity but also as an enormous threat -because it is fuelling the evolution of some seriouscompetition.
Studies of other transition industries in emergingmarket economies show how periods of liberalisation can be a time for the accelerateddevelopment of particular competitive advantages. A three-stage process of: learning (through
local subsidiaries sub-contracting withMNCs); leveraging (through internationalpartnerships and joint-ventures) and; leading(by exploiting specific capabilities to surpassdominant players) characterises a successfultransition.
Japanese firms managed this over about a30-year period from the 1950s in the autoand consumer electronics industries. SouthKorean firms in the auto and semiconductor
industriesmore recently took
about 20 years. But if we look at the innovative capabilitiesof firms like TCS, Infosys and Wipro we see that the Indiansoftware industry is emerging from the same transition, in amuch shorter time-scale.
China’s transition is well-underway and as the new ‘rulesof the game’ evolve we need to know which firms andindustry sectors will learn, leverage and eventually lead atthe global level.
A range of views were put forward in discussions withWBS alumni at events held this Autumn in Beijing, Shanghaiand Hong-Kong, following my presentation of this basictransition model. Alumni debated on which sectors wouldflourish, the possible timescale and the range of factors thatconstrained some of these developments in mainland China.
As you might expect our Beijing group emphasised the importance of politics and politicalcontrol over the transition and the resulting competitive strengths and weaknesses. The
Shanghai group were notablybullish and the Hong-Kong groupwere slightly nervous! - given thecompetitive challenge fromShanghai as an emerging locationfor the kinds of economic activitieswhich Hong-Kong has historicallydominated. Consumer electronics,mobile telephony and the autosector were highlighted severaltimes as potential future strengths
for the mainland economy, with the rapidgrowth in manufacturing and R&D capabilities, strong multinational alliances and the massiveevolving internal market representing a combined springboard for success at the global level.
Numerous uncertainties do remain, however, not least at the political level. As centralgovernment ‘retreats’ overarching concerns about the maintenance of political, social andeconomic stability through this transition remain strong. g
Advantage China?
‘Which firms willlearn leverage andlead globally?’
Beijing.
Shanghai.
Hong Kong.
Consider a typical strategy problem. A fewyears ago a leading European airline wasevaluating how it should react to the growingmenace of airlines such as Ryanair and EasyJet.The board identified three options - cut pricesto bring fares closer to those of the budgetcompetitors; upgrade service and reposition theairline as a premium alternative; or launch itsown budget airline to run alongside its regularline.
Marketing favoured the first alternativebecause it promised the highest passengernumbers. The financial director preferred thesecond choice because it offered the lowest costand highest margins. But neither market sharenor margins represent the correct criteria forchoosing a strategy. The right strategy is the onethat maximises shareholder value. The firstalternative increased passenger numbers butdestroyed value by massively eroding margins.The airline lacked the cost base to compete withthe discounters. The second alternative led to abig drop in market share, which the higherprices could not offset. The dual brandingapproach was best because it recognised thesegmentation of the market. It allowed theairline to make a high contribution in the slowlydeclining regular market and to develop a newbusiness with a low cost structure to compete inthe growing European budget market.
Value-based marketing provides the rightcriterion for judging between alternativemarketing strategies. It also provides the toolsfor valuing intangible assets like brands (fordetails see my book Value-based Marketing,published by Wiley, 2000). Most importantly itallows marketers to make the case formarketing initiatives in terms that make senseto the board. It enables the marketing directorto say if you follow this pricing policy or thiscommunications strategy it should create aspecific amount of shareholder value. This iswhat the CEO wants from marketing - ideas thatcreate value not policies that increase brandawareness or market share.
Many marketing managers wrongly believethat maximising shareholder value leads toshort-term policies. In fact, policies aimed atmaximising short-term profits reduce ratherthan increase shareholder value. A company’sshare price is overwhelmingly determined byinvestors’ expectations of very long-term freecash flows. So actions like cutting brandsupport to boost immediate earnings is likely tobe followed by a fall rather than a rise in theshare price, as investors become sceptical of thelong-term future of the business. g
Further reading
Peter Doyle’s latest book is Value-basedMarketing: Marketing Strategies for Growth andShareholder Value, Wiley 2000)
DR SIMON COLLINSONASSOCIATE DEAN, MBAS
WARWICK BUSINESS SCHOOL
16 | nexus
Early days for MBAs
ANTICIPATION, EXCITEMENT AND TERROR were probably the words which most accurately the describedthe feelings of all the 131 Full Time MBA students who arrived for induction on September 23rd.These emotions combined with that of complete confusion probably remained with me throughoutthe majority of the induction week and the commencement of lectures in week 1. However, as I amsure is the way with every FT MBA year, the successful execution of several Greek, Latin, cinema,bowling and theatre nights and the Class of 2003 has brilliantly sailed into Week 5 and are handlingourselves like we have been here for months rather than weeks.
Good class discussion on case studies and the description of academic theories using practicalexamples has allowed all members to contribute and to add to the academic experience. Groups havebegun to form in terms of career and personal interests and the class fully supports forays into newexperiences for everyone whether this is the debut into public speaking or the attempt to find a newsport.
No doubt exams and the Christmas holidays will be here before we know it and exhaustionfollowed by relief will kick in. However, I am confident that we will all arrive back fresh faced andrested for another exhilarating ride in the Spring Term. g
WarwickscholarsTEN WBS UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS have beenawarded WGA scholarships during the pastthree years; this is an impressive achievement asthe standard of application has been excellentsince the establishment of the Scheme in 2000.
Over 250 WBS alumni make generouscontributions through the Alumni Fund and theWarwick Graduates Association (WGA) TrustFund. The WGA Scholarships Scheme has beenable to award a further 62 scholarships for theacademic year 2002/03 - this brings the totalnumber of WGA Scholars up to 128. An annualscholarship of £6,000 is awarded to eachsuccessful candidate. The WGA ScholarshipScheme for undergraduate students is one ofthe first of its kind in the UK, and any help youcan give in promoting the scheme to potentialWarwick students would be much appreciated.
If you are interested in contributing to theWGA Scholarship Scheme or the WBS Fund forExcellence, please contact Emily Fay on 024 7652 4176. g
Wharton and Warwick: a shared futureIN OCTOBER, SENIOR FACULTY from Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, one of the top rankedUS business schools, visited Warwick Business School to discuss the establishment of anundergraduate exchange programme. Knowing the national and international reputation enjoyed byWarwick’s undergraduate programme, regularly listed among the top two or three British businessschools, they had us marked as one of their favourite candidates. They were obviously impressed withwhat they saw because within a few days a draft agreement establishing the exchange had been sentto WBS.
“We were delighted that Wharton contacted us,” said Professor Mike Terry, Associate Dean ofUndergraduate Programmes. “The exchange will enhance the standing of both schools and shouldlead to other fruitful developments.”
Wharton undergraduates may now choose to complete some of their programme at Warwick.Members of Warwick’s undergraduate programme will have the opportunity to study at Wharton,for a full academic year, along the same broad principles as those exchanges established with themany other leading schools in North America and the European Union. g
Left to right: Cathrin Kolb, Tanya Martin and Mark Guthrie.
BY TANYA MARTINFULL-TIME MBA 2002-03
THE INSTITUTE OF CHARTERED ACCOUNTANTS ofEngland and Wales (ICAEW) has awarded asubstantial research grant to Professor KeithHoskin and Fiona Anderson-Gough, of WBSAccounting and Finance, together with Dr UrsulaLucas of Bristol Business School.
The grant is to further their project entitled“Between Workplace and Qualification:Engineering Integrative Learning”. It involves anaction research direction looking at ways ofclosing the gap between what is learned to passexaminations, as qualification-focused learning,and what is (variably) learned on the job, as work-based learning, in professional accountancytraining.
Keith Hoskin explains, “This grant is fundingwork of strategic importance to the accountancyprofession, since both the professional institutesand the accountancy firms recognise, post-Enron,how crucial it is to produce qualified professionalswho possess both technical competence andethical understanding. The work of our five-strongmulti-disciplinary research team is contributing todeveloping a new kind of accountancy trainingthat can potentially promote a more integrativeand critically aware learning experience fortrainees without sacrificing traditional rigour. Ittherefore helps us as a School to be seen as beingat the forefront in promoting desired anddesirable change in a key business advisoryprofession, at a particularly timely moment.” g
ICAEW grant for WBS research
WBS Alumni Association Career Resources
WE WANT TO SEE all our graduates in their dream job. That’s why we offerseveral excellent ways to help you maximise your career potential.
We have services that help both job-seekers and employers as well asresources aimed at career improvement in general.
The WBS Alumni Office advertises positions from a variety ofcompanies on the WBS Alumni website. Employers can submit a vacancy,and job-seekers can browse vacancies currently available at:www.wbs.ac.uk/alumni (follow links to careers).
Employers’ ResourcesGraduates of WBS are amongst the most highly sought after in the market.With a degree from a business school ranked within the top four in theUK, 10th in Europe and 36th worldwide, our graduates are a valuable assetto any organisation.
You can advertise your organisation’s vacancies, free of charge, directlyto the most able candidates. A number of organisations have alreadyfound this service extremely useful.
You can also view the CVs of current Warwick MBA students andrecent graduates: www.wbs.ac.uk/corporate/candidate_search/ Contact Emily Fay in the Alumni Office on: [email protected]
Hundreds of WBS Alumni CVs are listed with MBA Direct andExecutives Direct. The Executives-Direct database contains nearly 6,000candidates who have all registered unique and detailed Career Profileswhich are available for recruiters to search via: www.executives-direct.com (results are anonymous).
NetworkingContact fellow Alumni using the Online Directory or the list of AlumniMentors to widen your network, to seek strategic advice on how to pursueyour goals, and for specific information on companies and careers.
The WBS Alumni Association and the Warwick Graduates Associationrun events for Alumni around the world to assist you in networking andcareer management. You can always find the up-to-date calendar of eventson the website.
You can also use Global Workplace (see right) to develop your linkswith Alumni of other top international business schools.
Careers Advice & CoachingYou can consult a variety of sources for careers advice and coaching suchas one-to-one careers advice from the University of Warwick’s CareersService: www.warwick.ac.uk/careers
We can also recommend the following independent providers. GlobalWorkplace (see below) offers career coaching worldwide. Warwick’s AileenThomas offers career coaching: ([email protected] ). Patricia Wilson: ([email protected]) offers one-to-one CV review,interview skills, and general advice. London-based Warwick graduateDarius Norell, MD of Real World ([email protected]) offersone-to-one career counselling.
Helpful OrganisationsOutside organisations which may be able to assist you:� The Association of MBAs: www.mba.org.uk
listing of events and much more.� The Global Workplace: www.global-workplace.com
jobs database, networking events, employer information, coaching and directory. Contact WBS Alumni Office for a link to free registration.
� MBA Exchange: www.mbaexchange.comfree cv listing service for MBAs.
� MBA Direct: mba-direct.co.uka specialist candidate listing service for Alumni with a postgraduate degree.Warwick Business School Alumni Office is currently developing a
number of initiatives with the Institute of Directors. These include thedevelopment of a Director Development Centre for the West Midlandsand an offer of a preferential entry rate for those of you who would like tojoin the Institute. Those of you who are not yet Directors - but are keen toget there can join as Associates in the first instance and have access to thefull range of services offered. Keep an eye on the WBS Alumni website forfurther news.
VacanciesJob-seekers can find vacancies listed on the WBS website. There are alsolinks from the WBS Alumni website to the best websites that we have beenable to find internationally for jobs. g
careers | 17
Executive MBA Refresher Courses 2003Run in collaboration with our AEA Alliance partners, EM Lyon and Thunderbird AmericanGraduate School of International Management, the 2003 International MBA Refresher willfocus on aspects of New Issues in Intercultural Management.
The topics covered from an intercultural perspective will include Communication, LeadershipSuccess, HR Management, Negotiation, Knowledge Creation and the anatomy of transnationalnetworks and Governance in an Intercultural Environment. There will be two speakers on theprogramme from each of the three partner business schools from the UK, France and the USA.
The 3.5 day event will be held at the stylish Hotel Ambassador, located in the heart of the Parisbusiness district, close to the Opéra Garnier, Moulin Rouge and the famous Parisiandepartment stores.
For full programme details and to book your Refresher places, visit: w www.wbs.ac.uk/corporate/mba_refresher.cfm e [email protected] or call t +44 (0)24 7652 4395
International MBARefresher 22-25 April 2003 ParisNew Issues in InternationalManagement
a
ON 17TH OCTOBER A newly constituted Alumni Board forWarwick Business School met for the first time. TheBoard will meet three times annually and it will serve toincrease and enhance Alumni linkage with the BusinessSchool.
Members include: Maria Chryssoulaki (MBA, 1998),Senior Consultant, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Maria DiPalma (MBA, 1994), Vera Dubrovina (BSc Economics1997, MSc Economics and Finance 1998), AssociateDirector, Manager of Repo Operations, UBS Warburg,Kevin Engelbretson (MBA, 2000), Product Manager, 02,Richard Luckraft (MBA, 2001), Wire-e, SwagatamMukerji (MBA, 1991), Executive Chairman, Eyecare;Group Finance Director, Biocompatibles, BarbaraOldridge (MBA, 1993), Michael Readey (MBA, 1997),Equity Research, Goldman Sachs, Clive South (MBA,1999), Programme Manager, Hewlett Packard, PhilipWhite (MBA, 2001), Paul Wyman (BSc ManagementSciences 1974), Implementation Group Manager, T-Mobile.
The chair of the Board is Professor Howard Thomas,Dean of Warwick Business School. Additionally sevenmembers of WBS staff serve on the Board includingElizabeth Ballantine, Executive MBA Programme, EmilyFay (Secretary to the Board), Alumni Relations Manager,Jenny Hocking, Associate Dean, John McGee , Professorof Marketing and Strategic Management, AndrewPettigrew, Professor of Strategy and Organisation, MikeTerry, Professor of Industrial Relations, and LeslieWillcocks, Professor of E-Business.
The Board will recruit additional members over thecoming year and all members’ terms will conclude afterthree years. Anyone interested in joining the Boardshould send a current CV and covering letter to theDean of Warwick Business School. g
18 | nexus
What is a career strategy?
The authors are:Gary Lloyd is a Warwick MBA working for Euronext.liffee [email protected] Stahl is a professional business coache [email protected]
Executive MBA Refresher Courses 2003Renew acquaintance with some of your favourite Business School academics and relive carefreestudent days at the Warwick campus!
The MBA Refresher gives you the opportunity to do just this and - most importantly - to updateyour business knowledge and maintain the value of your prestigious qualification.
This year’s 3.5 day programme explores the theme of Images of Strategy - based on a forthcomingBlackwell publication edited by Steve Cummings and David Wilson - and will include contributionsfrom Andrew Pettigrew, David Wilson, Peter Doyle and Chris Smith.
Previous delegates have greatly enjoyed the experience, claiming the course to be “useful andthought-provoking across a range of subjects”, with “balance and pace”. Another declared that“The lecturers were inspiring - the standard is high with an enjoyable variety of styles.” The generalconsensus was that the programme “exceeded expectations” and was “money well spent”.
So - meet up with old friends, network with MBAs from other business schools and maintain thevalue of your MBA investment on the Warwick MBA Refresher.
MBA Refresher 2-5 February 2003 WarwickImages of Strategy, Images of the Firm
a
THE AUTHORS ASKED A sample of MBAs if they have a ‘Career Strategy’. The majority did not.Those that did described a plan with milestones and a destination. When pressed, mostremembered having a strategy after graduating but had discarded it because it was too rigidin an uncertain job market.
What surprised us was the narrow interpretation of strategy. We believe that businessstrategy models have a lot to offer when thinking about Career Strategy. Creative application
of those models can providerevealing frames through which toview our personal developmentand career choices.
Consider some of the wellknown models. Strategic Planningwas jettisoned because of its
rigidity. Emergent Strategy is closer to the development of most careers but leaves a lot tochance. When did you last think about how you differentiate yourself or consider whichniche might be most profitable? How about applying Porter’s ‘The Five Forces’ to a positionyou are considering. Pick your favourite model, apply it creatively to yourself - you may besurprised by what it teaches you.
Our favourites are Strategic Intent and Core Competencies. Strategic Intent is having astretching destination in mind but being flexible about the means. Core competency isabout building differentiating capabilities that can be combined into different products - or CVs!
Don’t confuse these competencies with the ones on job profiles such as team working orcommunication skills. We are talking about things like: a deep understanding of directmarketing or new venture management.
Developing a Career Strategy requires investment: time, effort and money. Critically, italso requires insight. This is where the authors found independent coaching so valuable.Good coaches provide a structured framework to think through goals, strategies andconcrete actions beyond existing frames. g
A new AlumniBoard
‘Developing a Career Strategyrequires investment:
time, effort and money.’
The WBS Alumni Web site...
www.wbs.ac.uk/alumni
� Online Directory of Alumni� Access to Harvard Business Review� Calendar of forthcoming events� Latest school and Alumni news� Volunteer Alumni mentors� Career resources & vacancies� Networking
To log on to view the Directory or toaccess library information such asHarvard Business Review, you willneed your Alumni number. This is yourold student number and is printed onthe address and update sheetenclosed with your magazine.Alternatively you can contact theAlumni Office,[email protected], who willsupply it to you.
nexus | 19
LAST YEAR SAW THE first students begin theEuropean MBA, an exciting new variant ofthe Warwick MBA, studied full-time.Involving two European partners - TheSchool of Business Administration at theUniversity of Mannheim in Germany and theEcole Supérieure des Sciences Economiqueset Commerciales (ESSEC) at Cergy Pontoisenear Paris, the programme gives participantsthe rare opportunity to experience differentuniversity environments in key regions of theEU.
Andy Scheele was an operations directorwith Celestica, the fourth largest electronicsoutsourcing company in the world. Heexplains his reasons for choosing the European MBA, “I’m looking forward to working with adynamic and varied group of people in many different environments, especially the managementproject with a European multi-national. I joined the Warwick MBA by modular study in November
2001. One year later and I’m taking advantageof the flexibility that the Warwick MBA offersby finishing it full-time from January.”
Fellow student Ileana Antypas agrees, “I’mespecially looking forward to my third term,which will be spent in Mannheim working inmulti-cultural teams; the highlight will be the
opportunity to do a project with a leading multi-national firm. I really am getting valuable exposureto the European market as well as academic and practical qualifications - qualities that I know aresought after by major organisations in Europe at the moment.” g
European MBA - the Way Forward
‘I’m looking forward toworking with a dynamic and
varied group of people.’
Alumni group contacts
WBS ALUMNI GROUPS are now being established in many countries around the world.A number of events have been organised during 2002 and more are planned in 2003.Contact names for established groups are listed below.
If your group is not listed below, then please send your contact details to theWBS alumni office, or if would like to set up a group in your area, contact Emily Fayat e [email protected]
Beijing, Kevin Ma e [email protected] Kong, Johnny Li e [email protected], Christian Hoefter e [email protected]
e [email protected] York, Ranan Lachman e [email protected], Per-Egill Frostmann e [email protected] Paris, Thierry Chappe e [email protected] de Janeiro, Diniz Lopes e [email protected], Benjamin Ye e [email protected] Paulo, Marcia D’Angelo e [email protected], Yuer Huang e [email protected]
UKLondon, Phil White e [email protected], Alex Clark e [email protected], Richard Luckraft e [email protected]
Clive South e [email protected]
...for everything
The first European MBA students.
www.wbs.ac.uk
contacts
Alumni Office, Warwick Business SchoolUniversity of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7ALUnited Kingdomt +44 (0)24 7652 4396f +44 (0)24 7652 3719e [email protected] www.wbs.ac.uk/alumni
Emily Fay, Alumni Relations Manager t +44 (0)24 7652 4176e [email protected]
Pam Barnes, Alumni Publications Officert +44 (0)24 7652 4396e [email protected]
Sue Cresswell, Events Co-ordinatort +44 (0)24 7657 3967e [email protected]
Photography by John Weatherly
Nexus is the magazine of the Alumni Association,Warwick Business School, University of Warwick,Coventry CV4 7AL United Kingdom t +44 (0)24 7652 4306
The views contained in Nexus are those ofcontributors and not necessarily those of WarwickBusiness School or the University of Warwick.
Design by Mustard +44 (0)1608 652919 (01/03)
An exhausted but exhilarated Warwick student team finished a credible mid-fleet inthe 2002 International Business Schools regatta, held on the Solent in the summer.The regatta featured 11 of Europe’s business schools. Sponsored by Ford, theWarwick team had prepared for the event with the help of a professional coach. “Itwas a fitting conclusion to a great year on the full-time MBA course,” said SkipperRichard Thomas. g
The sweet success of William Boyd (MBA 1985-86), managing director of AfonTinplate in Swansea, featured in the news recently. An independent company, AfonTinplate produces coated, lacquered or varnished tin plate, with the well-knowngreen and gold Lyles Golden Syrup can being one of its major contracts. g
Chris Lemassif (FMBA 1999-00) has been promoted to Marketing CommunicationsManager, Aston Martin, Jaguar, Land Rover, Canada. g
David Gates, (MAIR 1981-84) has been appointed Principal of Keighley College inYorkshire. Moving from Swindon College, David has more than twenty yearsexperience in Further Education. g
Mike Kinski (EMBA 1985-84) was recently appointed President of the CharteredInstitute of Personnel & Development (CIPD). Mike was formerly HR director ofScottish Power. g
noticeboard
a