Top FT rankings for Brunel Business School

Brunel Business School has recently been ranked amongst the top 75 Business Schools in Europe by the Financial Times. The FT’s 2010 European Business Schools Rankings saw Brunel Business School rated 21st in the UK—thought to be one of the highest positions for a new entrant to the rankings.

The FT’s annual ranking of European business schools is based on its rankings of providers of executive MBAs, full-time MBAs and other management courses – 2010 marks the seventh year of the ranking of European Schools.

The European Schools ranking follows on from our success in the FT’s Masters in Business ranking which saw Brunel Business School’s MSc Management course ranked 10th in the UK and 59th in the world. This report placed our MSc 2nd in the UK and 26th in the world in terms of value for money.

The FT Masters in Management Report, first published in 2005 and now recognised globally as one of the most important league tables for those interested in the quality of business education, ranks master's programmes in general management for ‘pre-experience' students.

Zahir Irani, Head of Brunel Business School, commented, "Both rankings are excellent news for our students and the School and are testimony to the quality of academic teaching and the students we attract on to our courses. I should like to thank Ashley Braganza, Dimitrios Koufopoulos and David McAndrews for their work in securing the ranking and of course also our alumni for participating in the FT assessment."

ACROSS THE SCHOOL December 2010

Issue 26

In this Issue

Pg 1 Across the School

Pg 2-3 News round up

Pg 3 Important Dates for

your Diary

Pg 4 People News

Pg 5 Student News

Pg 6-8 Research News

BrunelB2B BBS news for BBS staff

Update on the new Business School Building/Eastern Gateway Development

As the new building progresses you will gradually see the second floor starting to rise above the level of the site hoardings.

Laing O’Rourke are the appointed contractors and took possession of the site on 12th July 2010. They are currently developing detail designs with their own appointed Design Team and discharging relevant planning conditions.

The current planned construction programme from now is: Substructure 9th February 2011 followed by Superstructure 13th May. Cladding and roof-works will be ready by August/September with the aim to have power on by 8th September. External works and hand over of new building is expected to be 2nd April 2012.

In the past Brunel and its contractors have been very good at keeping to project deadlines, so our expectation is that we will keep pretty close to these dates. However, I will keep you updated if there are any slippages.

The Business School is currently actively developing the audiovisual specification for the teaching and seminar rooms in the building. More general planning will take place at regular monthly project meetings attended by the School Manager which restart after Christmas. Dave Snowden

Business Life Student

Ambassadors

The Brunel School's Business Life programme is designed to help students:

• Acquire a range of employability skills;

• Have a distinct edge in the labour market;

• Develop networking skills;

• Provide opportunities to work as paid or unpaid interns or placements;

• Manage career searches effectively;

• Acquire skills in CV writing and being interviewed;

• Provide access to a wide range of training and development opportunities and much more.

Page 2 News round up

Professional recognition for Business School degree programmes The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) confirmed recently that Business and Management (Accounting) graduates would be exempt not only from the five modules that make up CIMA’s entry level qualification but also from three operational level modules required for the CIMA’s professional qualification. CIMA is the world’s largest professional body of management accountants with 172,000 members and students working in 168 countries worldwide. Similarly, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), the global body for professional accountants, has advised the School that Business and Management (Accounting) graduates of 2010 and subsequently will be exempt from four papers and a fifth paper dependent upon modules studied. "This is also great news for the School as it demonstrates the relevance and academic rigour of our curriculum and will endorse future applications for school wide accreditations," commented Gabriella Spinelli who coordinated the application for these exemptions. Furthermore, the MSc Global Supply Chain Management is now fully accredited by the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS) - the leading professional body representing the field of purchasing and supply chain management . Free student membership of the CIPS will be available to students on the course who can then apply for full membership once they graduate. Des Doran, Programme Director, commented, "this is excellent news for students and prospective students and is testimony to the breadth and depth of the course curriculum - together with its relevance to aspiring supply chain management professionals - as well as to the quality of teaching on offer." The School continues to discuss recognition for the MSc Human Resource Management and the MSc Human Resources and Employment Relations with the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). Graduates of the MSc Marketing and the MSc Corporate Brand Management have direct entry to the Chartered PG Diploma in Marketing offered by the Chartered Institute of Marketing without having to take any of its lower level exams.

Business Life Programme launched The Business School’s innovative Business Life Programme was formally launched to students on 8 December and presented to staff the following Wednesday. The Programme is aimed at enhancing the employability of Business

School students and at making all students aware of the wealth of support available both in the School and across the University. If you haven’t already done so, do visit www.brunel.ac.uk/bbs to get a flavour of the Programme. Additional features are being planned and will be announced in due course.

Page 3

Small Business Ventures Poster Presentation In December, final year undergraduate students presented their small business ideas at a poster presentation to business guests and academic staff. Students were quizzed on their business plan and received feedback. Part of the Entrepreneurship and Small Business Ventures module, the poster presentation provides an opportunity for students to showcase their business ideas, enhance their employability as well as improve their networking skills.

News round up

Business School staff and students do their bit for good causes

Brunel Business School shows it ‘spots’ and supports Children in Need

On Friday 19th November, Brunel Business School showed their spots and joined the rest of Brunel University by supporting Pudsey Bear and Children in Need for a day of fundraising and entertainment.

Cake sales, book sales, giant Jenga games and music were just a few elements which made it a great and highly successful day. The highlight of this fantastic event, however, has to be the raffle. Thanks to the generosity of local businesses, staff and students got the chance of winning some amazing prizes with a lucky first year student walking away with the top prize, a free night’s accommodation at a luxurious Hertfordshire hotel. The raffle on its own raised an incredible £300 and when money from all the other initiatives was counted, we discovered that the School had raised over £530! Congratulations to Francesca Vitale and the rest of the team in the APO.

Bringing Christmas cheer to disadvantaged children in Eastern Europe Brunel Business School staff managed to fill 10 lovely shoeboxes for the Mustard Seed Relief Mission. The shoeboxes were taken over to the Meeting House to join the others collected from across the University and will be transported by Mustard Seed to schools, churches, refugee camps, orphanages and hospitals in Romania, Moldavia and the Ukraine. Well done to Louise Faux and the rest of the APO team for coordinating the shoebox collection for the Business School.

BEST XI The BEST event is a highly significant and integral feature of the Business Life Programme. Following on from the success of events held in 2009 and 2010, BEST 2011 is an exciting, innovative event resulting from a collaboration involving current and past students, employers, acclaimed guest speakers, the Placement and Careers Centre and Business School staff. Come along and support BEST XI— 28 January 2011 (1-5.30pm, Hamilton Centre)

Important dates for your diary

Accreditation of Brunel MBA Programmes 2011

Our flagship MBA programme will be due for re-accreditation in 2011 by the Association of MBAs (AMBA) and all of our programmes (including Healthcare Management and Aviation Management) will be evaluated as a result. AMBA accreditation is a fundamental measure of MBA course quality and is recognised the world over as a treasured and valuable mark of commitment to the delivery of general management education, practice and the development of future managers and leaders. Key dates of the re-accreditation are: April 13-14th 2011 During the two day event, the team from AMBA will be meeting with both academic staff who teach on the MBA programmes, administrative and professional staff as well as students and will seek to conclude their visit by providing an analysis and final recommendation for re-accreditation as appropriate. “Mock” Re-Accreditation Event – 7th March 2011 In the New Year, there will be a number of MBA briefing sessions for staff as well as a “mock” event with external assessors with the hope that this will greatly prepare The Brunel MBA for the final re-accreditation. I feel that all staff will give their support this hugely important project. Amir Sharif

Page 4

Baby News Congratulations to Tillal Eldabi, Lecturer, on the arrival of his new son who was born weighing 7lbs 1oz.

Congratulations to Kylie Field, Level 1 Administrator, who gave birth in September to a healthy baby boy, named Alfie, weighing in at 8lbs 10oz. Recent Promotions Congratulations to David Gallear on his recent promotion to Reader in Operations Management and Enterprise and also on his appointment as Deputy Head of School(Teaching, Learning and Accreditation).

Congratulations to Vishanth Weerakkody who has been promoted to Senior Lecturer and appointed as the new Undergraduate Director.

Just married! Congratulations also to Katie Bridge who became Mrs Katie Moore on Saturday 16 October.

PEOPLE NEWS

New academic staff Since the last B2B in the summer, Brunel Business School has welcomed a number of new academic and administrative staff: Emel Aktas joined the Business School in September as Lecturer in Sustainability and Operations and is a member of research group, OASIS. Her research focuses on supply chain management, transportation networks, sustainable system design, healthcare management, and competitiveness of nations. Also, Emel has taken part as a researcher in both public and private funded projects on diverse areas such as location selection, shift scheduling or transportation master plan strategy.

Suraksha Gupta joined the Business School in November having worked at Middlesex University and as a Visiting Lecturer at Essex University and also within the Economics department at Brunel University several years ago. Suraksha has held several managerial positions within various companies in India before joining the world of academia. Her research interests include Brand Management and Business Sustainability.

Gizem Güven joined the Business School in October as a Lecturer after gaining her PhD in the area of ethics earlier this year. Gizem was a graduate teaching assistant and she also taught at the University of Leeds where she gained her MA in Human Resource Management. Her research interests include business ethics, social responsibility, large group psychology and identity, employment relations and entrepreneurship.

Selcük Uygür became a Lecturer in Business Ethics in September after gaining his PhD from Brunel Business School and he is also a member of the research group CREWES. His research interests include work ethic, influence of religion in business, enterprise culture and entrepreneurship. Selcük has published in the 3* journal of Business Ethics.

Kristina Potočnik is a Post-Doctoral research fellow and is currently working with Neil Anderson (Professor of Human Resource Management). She received her PhD in Work and Organizational Psychology from the University of Valencia (Spain) and has also carried out research in other fields, such as leadership and organizational climate. Anuj Sood joined the Business School in the summer as Research Manager. Prior to joining Brunel Anuj worked as a Project Manager for a Research & Development spinout company from Queen Mary University of London.

Anuj’s main contributions included revenue generation by proactive coordination of proposal formations and full life-cycle management of consortium (e.g. EU, TSB) as well as single client (e.g. Ministry of Defence) projects.

Turn to page 6 to read what Anuj has been working on since joining the Business School and how he can help you.

New Admin Staff

Within the administration section of the Business School, please give a warm welcome to the following new staff: Heather Carr is the new Executive Development Administrator. Karen Wilkinson joins us from the Accommodation Office as our new Operations Assistant and will be working alongside Stuart Sanford.

Moving on… The Business School has sadly had to say goodbye to a few members of its staff in the last few months: in September, Antoaneta Serguieva left to take up a position at UCL, Costas Andriopoulos and Manto Gotsi both took up positions at Cardiff University; May Seitanidi left in October for a position at the University of Hull and Afam Ituma left at the end of November.

Page 5

Brunel Business School launches “Buddies” Initiative

Designed to offer second year students planning to do a work placement some peer support and mentoring from Level 3s who have already completed a placement, the School’s buddies initiative was launched in October 2010. Feedback so far has been extremely positive.

Global Supply Chain Masterclass

In November Arnd Kaiser of Rolls Royce UK provided MSc Global Supply Chain Management students with a Masterclass in Lean Production techniques. The presentation dealt with the human resource dimensions associated with the introduction of lean tools and techniques and provided students with insights into the challenges often faced by managers when embarking upon change programmes.

STUDENT NEWS

August

Business School graduate Archie Panjabi wins US Emmy

Business School graduate turned actress, Archie Panjabi, recently won an Emmy for her role as private investigator in the hit US drama, The Good Wife. Archie, who is one of the Business School’s first cohort of graduates (she graduated in 1996 with a degree in Management Studies), picked up the best Supporting Actress award for her role in the US Legal Drama, The Good Wife at a lavish Los Angeles ceremony beating off competition from Mad Men’s Elisabeth Moss and Christina Hendricks. The London-born 38 year old actress gave a delighted acceptance speech as she was the only British actress to walk away with an award. “Working on The Good Wife for me is like a dream come true,” she said. Archie also thanked Angelina Jolie, with whom she worked on 2007 film A Mighty Heart. Backstage she said that Jolie had been “an inspiration.” Archie first made a name for herself in the British hit films Bend it Like Beckham and East is East before playing major Hollywood roles in the Oscar-winning The Constant

Gardener and A Mighty Heart. Adrian Woods and Keith Dickson remember Archie fondly.

July/August

Doctoral student honoured by Saudi embassy

Business School doctoral student, Talal Al-Maghrabi, who successfully defended his PhD thesis at a viva in July, was one of three Brunel students from Saudi Arabia to be honoured recently at a special event on 27July organised by the Saudi embassy in London and the Saudi Arabian Cultural Mission in the United Kingdom.

New Route to Academic Promotion for Suzan In August, Suzan Alqurashi became the first female student from Saudi Arabia to graduate from Brunel Business School’s New Route PhD programme. She has since taken up an Assistant Professorship within the Faculty of Economics and Public Administration at the University of King Abdulaziz in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Vice Chancellors Travel Prize

PhD student, Karim Ullah, was one of the lucky few research students to win the Vice Chancellors Travel Prize. His research focused on ‘Designing Sharia Compliant Financial Services: Addressing Context for Persistent Adaptation (Migration). Karim recently become a father too. Congratulations! December PhD viva success Congratulations to Mark Ramrattan for successfully defending his doctoral thesis “the theory of deferred action to the practice of web-based IS development using action research.” Mark’s first supervisor was Nandish Patel and his second supervisor was Habin Lee.

Page 6

Top billing for Ruth

Simpson and Steve

Smith

On 6th October, Stephen Smith and Ruth Simpson shared a public platform at the University of Edinburgh with Prof. Arlie Hochschild, International Scholar and highly celebrated American sociologist. The invitation was by Professor Pam Smith whose book ‘The Emotional Labour of Nursing’ has had a considerable impact on the nursing curriculum and nurse practice. The theme chosen by Steve and Ruth was on ‘presence and absence’. The event reaffirmed long standing links, indeed priceless associations between Professor Hochschild, CREWES (Centre for Research into Emotion Work and Employment Studies) and the Working With Emotions Network (Em.Net) and gifted us an ideal opportunity to discuss future work.

RESEARCH NEWS

Merger of research groups BRESE and CIBSEM to create CEIBIEM Business School research centres, BRESE (Brunel Research into Enterprise, Innovation, Sustainability and Ethics) and CIBSEM (Centre for International Business and Strategy in Emerging Markets) have now merged to form one enlarged and newly-named research centre, “Centre for Enterprise, International Business and Innovation in Emerging Markets”, CEIBIEM for short and pronounced as ‘see-bee-m’. The new centre will initially be headed up by Suma Athreye (Professor of International Strategy). This new arrangement will facilitate new groupings of research active staff in such research areas as, for example, international entrepreneurship and international business strategies within newly emerging markets in India, China and Africa. A large research grant proposal initiative is already being developed under a team which includes Suma Athreye, Keith Dickson (Professor of Technology Management and Deputy Head of School (Research)) and Ray Hackney (Professor of Business Systems and Director of Doctoral Programme) plus other staff from the Business School and colleagues from the School of Engineering and Design and external institutions. The research grant proposal initiative is examining the commercialisation of innovations in India and China.

CONFERENCES

Shaping Greece’s economic future

In October, Dimitrious Koufopoulos featured in a highly impressive line-up of speakers that included international commentators, government officials and decision-makers from financial services and insurance at a conference in Greece to examine how to shape solid strategies in a volatile environment. Dimitrios gave a speech on “The Accountability of Corporate Governance in the Greek NHS.” The event was organised by The Financial Times Ltd.

2nd International Colloquium on Place Marketing and Nation Branding

Due to the popular success of the 1st International Colloquium on Place Marketing and Branding, with the best of the full papers having just been published in a special issue of Place Branding and Public Diplomacy (Vol. 6.2, 2010), Brunel Business School hosted the 2nd International Colloquium in September 2010. For this second colloquium, directors Charles Dennis, Ying Fan and TC Melewar welcomed an audience of 80 participants from across the world to an impressive, exciting range of places and topics, from the Beijing Olympic city to Las Vegas; from Bob Dylan’s Minnesota to Brand India’s Slum dog Millionaire; taking in Iceland, Spain, Finland, Pakistan, Turkey, Brazil etc. A common theme was brand image building of places based on the ‘hook’ of a perceived unique selling proposition. For example, Ainars Brencis of the School of Business Administration Turiba evaluated the potential for Latvia’s nation branding strategy based on ice hockey. By way of contrast, Graham Roberts of Université Paris Ouest la Défense focused on Russia’s mega malls as retail theatre. Other topics contributing to the variety included the Mexican desert as an ‘oasis for tourism’, Switzerland’s ‘high tech’ and even ‘The Deep’ aquarium in Hull, UK.

Coming soon …

Third eLearning 2.0 International Conference

Following on from the success of the previous two eLearning conferences, the third eLearning 2.0 international conference will be hosted by the Business School on 6th and 7th July 2011. Elearning 2.0 will explore the use of Web 2.0 technologies such as Facebook, Wikis, YouTube and Twitter to support Technology Enhanced Learning. It will facilitate collaboration between practitioners, researchers, and policy makers in developing the next generation of e-learning. The conference will comprise invited keynote speeches and individual presentations which will be recorded and published as screencasts.

Page 7

Advising Barbadian accountants When the Barbadian accounting fraternity were mulling over whether to support or reject a Barbadian Government proposal to increase the threshold for company audits recently, Jill Collis, Reader in Accounting, was asked by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Barbados (ICAB) to provide insights into the experience of Britain and its European counterparts.

Jill presented her research at a series of seminars and roundtable discussions in September. The various stakeholder groups included accountants, auditors and members of the Barbados International Business Association (BIBA), with roundtable meetings with the ICAB Council members and government officials. Barbados has not increased the audit exemption threshold for small companies since it was first introduced in 1982 and the government's proposal to raise the thresholds has causing debate. ICAB's decision to invite Jill reflects the impact of UK research on the profession and regulators in other jurisdictions.

RESEARCH NEWS

Brunel Business School’s new Research Manager talks about his role Having recently joined BBS, Anuj Sood takes this opportunity to explain his role in this newly created position. He also presents some of the key proposals the School has submitted recently as well as the ones we are actively pursuing. Broadly, my role is to initiate and assist Brunel Business School academic staff to submit large grant funding proposals and contribute to the University-wide research intensive agenda. This would entail formation of a process whereby high quality proposals are submitted regularly to various funding bodies. Objectives The objective here is to exploit our core research areas and leverage our expertise by building strong relationships with collaborators, funding bodies and other stakeholders. I would also support your activities related to research publications in high impact journals and in REF-related activities. The main funding sources of interest are EU Framework Programme (EU FP7); ESRC, EPSRC and other UK research councils; trusts like Leverhulme; UK government departments and agencies; International bodies and commercial enterprises. Most of these bodies release a number of competitions throughout the year seeking research proposals in various themes such as ICT, Social Sciences & Humanities (SSH). In addition, some of these bodies fund international networks, mobility of researchers and novel research ideas either through competitions or on an open date basis. Working with you In my role, I would make you aware as and when such opportunities arise and provide assistance in identifying potential collaborative partners. Each funding body has its own mechanism though all involve writing up a proposal which includes sections on technical, management, financial, administrative and impact. I would deliver on project management including internal and external coordination leading to submission of your proposals. Grant proposals secured In the last few weeks, I have been involved in submission of two large grants totalling more than £1.5million from the school. The first one was a competition by EPSRC on promoting cross disciplinary research between engineers and economic and social academics. The second one was a proposal for frontier research under the ERC call of the EU FP7. In both these cases, I was involved in the full life cycle of the proposals. This included but was not limited to making academics aware of the calls and their specifics, bringing the partners together, coordination with the RSDO teams, arranging brainstorming and planning meetings, interactions with the funding bodies and overall project management. Current grant proposals in progress Presently, I am actively involved in five EU FP7 proposals with deadlines of Jan/Feb 2011 related to ICT (Future Internet, Governance, Personalized Health) and SSH (Supporting action, Social innovation). In addition, ground work is being carried out for future submissions. Marketing and planning work on Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) is also underway with the first advertisements coming out in Dec 2010. I believe that I can add value to your research and look forward to working with you. Please contact me at anuj.sood@brunel.ac.uk or 65828 or follow my twitter at _AnujSood

Anuj has an MBA and an Engineering degree. He is ITIL certified in IT service Management and is also a part-qualified management accountant.

Page 8

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NEWS IN BRIEF

Formal launch of Major Parts Work

Neil Anderson (Professor of Human Resource Management) and Cristina Costa, Senior Lecturer launched their important works set on Innovation and Knowledge Management, at a reception at the Michael Sterling Atrium, on 28th September.

This followed the publication earlier in the year of the set - a four-volume edited collection of seminal papers published in the management literatures over 60 years on innovation and knowledge management. Our Vice Chancellor Chris Jenks and representatives from Publishers, Sage, attended the launch.

Textbook recommended for National Award A major textbook titled Auditing Fundamentals published in October by John Aston, Senior Lecturer in Accounting and Finance, has been put forward for a national award from the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy. This up-to-date textbook examines the fundamentals of auditing in terms of legislation, codes affecting the profession, and the International Auditing Standards.

EJM Associate Editor Charles Dennis, Lecturer in Marketing, has recently been appointed Associate Editor of the European Journal of Marketing, which is the foremost European journal in the field. Funding Award

John Balmer, Professor of Corporate Branding, has been awarded University Funding for a seminar series which will focus on Corporate Heritage Brands. The series will draw on the research strengths in the Centre for Research in Marketing and more general research interests in nostalgia in the school.

Coveted Guest Lecture by UN Staff Brunel Business School staff and students enjoyed a talk by Dr Anne Miroux, Director, Division on Technology and Logistics, UNCTAD, Geneva, on Information Economy Report 2010: ICTs, Enterprises and Poverty Alleviation, which was recently released and published by the United Nations. Training for Trainers under the Knowledge Transfer Scheme (KTS) Satwinder Singh, Lecturer in International Business, who recently won a grant under the University’s KTS visited three institutions in India in September to deliver seminar/workshops on Research Methods and related topics. In total, Satwinder delivered eight presentations to staff and MBA students and the progress of two joint research projects which are currently underway between Brunel Business School and BIMTECH (Birla Institute of Management Technology) and RIMT (Regional Institute of Management and Technology) were also discussed. Culture and IS Maged Ali conducted a series of workshops on “Culture and IS” at the FLOSS Competence Centre (CCSL), University of Sao Paulo, Brazil in August. In September, Maged was also invited to speak at the American University of Cairo (AUC). Maged gave a presentation on "Time for an Alternative Approach for Cross-Cultural Studies in IS."

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RESEARCH NEWS

Professorial Seminar Series This autumn Adrian Woods commenced the Professorial Seminar Se-ries with a talk on ‘Should Universities Care about what Small Businesses Think about Graduates’ whilst Ashley Braganza talked about ‘From Theory to Practice: The Trinity of Research, Teaching and Consultancy.’ In October, Neil Anderson spoke about ‘In Search of Excellence: Lessons Learned from Two Dec-ades of Scientific Journal Publishing’ and John Balmer talked about ‘The Loves, Passions and Sorrows of the English Professoriate: A Personal Reflection.’