Credibility

All the way from Manchester, on his Birthday as well, we were honoured to have John  Dyer with us today, providing us with a live client case study to take a brief from as marketeers. John runs Credibility, a diversity specialist firm, who was looking for more ways to spread the reach of his organisations’ services. Below are the four budding marketeers from St Bonaventure’s summer school at Trinity College, who stepped out of their comfort zones to ask him their bold and insightful questions, designed to get behind the story he may have wanted us to hear! The more thorough the briefing they take, the better their aim with creative solutions in their marketing plans.

After an enjoyable morning spent delving into Johns very interesting business, and witnessing his passion for it unfold, we wandered across Broad street to see the lovely sights of Oxford in my lunch break. Thanks for coming all this way John!

Property Entrepreneurship

Spent the weekend on a course being taught by Kevin Green, a multimillionaire. Mind wide open…..

Thats what I wrote on Facebook nigh on two years ago. I’m writing this in Feb 2012.  How does one person influence another so profoundly? Many successful people – and the academics that study them – will tell you that a particular ‘mindset’ is the most important thing you need in order to venture successfully. But what does that mean and how can you ‘get it’? Can you even ‘get it’?? Continue reading

The Factory of Education?

What do these two pictures suggest to you?  Every Wednesday in Semester 2 I have been part of the teaching team for Creating Entrepreneurial Organisations. This is an undergraduate course that was originally designed by Richard Beresford and further developed by the highly creative James Bannerman, who is the module leader. It is a highly experiential course, that has in some ways become the victim of its own success,  it is very popular – as you can see from the picture.

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The legend of the sixth form

Have you ever been to Barcelona? Just do it.

I am happily here presenting a workshop at the European Foundation of Management Development’s Entrepreneurship Conference, representing Oxford Brookes University. I’m comparing my experiences of entrepreneurship education in the private sector with that delivered in Higher Education.

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Sky Blues Thinking…

…of starting a business when they retire from professional football. Two of them already have, and it was great to hear about their experiences and aspirations during this afternoon workshop for the Sky Blues – Coventry City Football Club. Organised by the Professional Football Association as an introduction to small business ownership, part of the afternoon was spent examining transferable skills and attributes. I have rarely worked with a group possessing such a neat fit of qualities for a second career as stellar entrepreneurs.

Leadership

MBA Cohort University of Hertfordshire

Dorothea introduces the Beer Distribution Game which was developed by the MIT Management School in the 1960s.

The purpose of the game is to meet customer demand for beer through a staged supply chain – the brewery, the wholesaler, and the retail outlet. It demonstrates the impact of system structures on human performance. Players engage for about an hour and then we have about the same amount of time for discussion.

I am a lorry.
I deliver beer and orders for beer between the groups.
I wish I had not worn high heels. Continue reading

Leadership

MBA Cohort University of Hertfordshire

Morning

Sometimes there are artificial divides in HE where topics are taught from an objective knowledge base that does not take account of our subjective experiences in the workplace. For example, I tend to be asked to teach entrepreneurship and/or innovation in Universities. These skills and qualities are upheld and promoted as highly desirable and necessary for business survival. However we can dismiss the personal cost and barriers to individuals when they display the very traits that can introduce novelty or difference. This was very evident during this morning’s exercise. Continue reading

Leadership

MBA Cohort University of Hertfordshire

Afternoon

How does leadership and followership arise?

Small group exercises, where tasked student observers give a report of their findings back in the plenary group.

15 minutes into the exercise and one my observers approaches me. Very quietly, with a sideways nod of his head he says, ‘Come and look at this’. Following him I understand that one group had rapidly thrown up a freestanding paper tower and after standing on chairs and tables, satisfied that it was as tall as it could be, had stopped building. However, their nearest neighbours had moved their infant structure to continue building next to some stairs. Continue reading

QUASS Conference, Padua, Italy

That’s me all that way away on the top table next to Alfonso, Director of Conform Italy and the QUASS Project Leader,   with a local dignitary (and some kind of Robot Transformer on the end there… his presentation was the real highlight.)

I’m about to start my presentation concerning the findings of the UK pilot using the QUASS method for assuring quality in an SME training firm. Continue reading