Newcastle Business School News Feed

International Welcome For Newcastle Business School Students

Newcastle Business School — 13/05/2009 14:59:07

Students from around the world descended on the River Tyne as Newcastle Business School welcomed nearly 150 of its international students to North East England.

Newcastle Business School hired a river boat cruiser as a special welcome to its new British and overseas undergraduates who arrived in the region at the beginning of October. Studying on the International Business programmes, the students were introduced to their British counterparts and enjoyed a three hour "Quay to Sea" river cruise starting out and finishing up on the scenic Quayside.

Newcastle Business School offers a number of international business courses and has partners across the globe in Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, China, Russia, Singapore as well as the USA and at business schools throughout Europe.

International Welcome 2008

A senior team of academics that included Thomas Matheus, Chris Jeffs, and Alison Pearce helped organise the event. Thomas said: "We really want to make our overseas students feel at home in Newcastle and regularly organise social networking events. This one was particularly important as the students have just arrived in the North East. The trip along the Tyne gave them a taste of what the region has to offer and the chance to meet students from the UK."

Newcastle Business School has a long-established network of academic and corporate partners around the world and has a global reputation as a leading provider of business and management education.

Overseas students have the option to complete their degrees at Newcastle Business School or study for credits which they can transfer back to their own universitieS. British students doing International Business at Newcastle Business School have the opportunity to carry out work or study placements abroad during the third year of their degree programme.

Inaugural Professorial Lecture Will Tackle Food Myths

Newcastle Business School — 13/05/2009 14:41:26

Environmentally-friendly food myths will be challenged at an inaugural lecture at Newcastle Business School, Northumbria University.

Professor David Oglethorpe, Professor of Logistics and Supply Chain Management, will examine the products that consumers are encouraged to buy in order to minimise their impact on the environment and consider how the supply networks and logistics involved can undermine any perceived benefit.

Professor David Oglethorpe

The lecture, entitled: "From Kuznets to KFC: Environmental Anomalies in the Food Supply Chain", takes place at Newcastle Business School in Northumbria University's new City Campus East on Thursday 6 November. It will draw on basic economic theory to establish a framework for rational supply chain development and demonstrate why the demand for certain lifestyle foods may be misconceived, misdirected or counter-intuitive.

Professor Oglethorpe joined Newcastle Business School following a career in the food industry for more than 20 years, both in practice-relevant research and directly in the private sector.

His PhD examined profit-environment trade-offs and decision making at the primary producer level and the sustainability of food systems has remained a central concern to his research and remains a priority for the food industry, even at a time of spiralling food costs.

Professor Oglethorpe said: "Lowering food miles, reducing packaging, going organic or more wholesome home cooking are the sort of things we are encouraged to do to save the planet. The reality is that these are simply lifestyle choices that in many cases, due to the nature of their supply chains, can actually create more harm than good. It's a contentious issue, in which we are all stakeholders, but some of these myths need putting to bed and a more considered approach is needed."

Environment Reporting "Dismissed"

Newcastle Business School — 13/05/2009 14:30:41

Mainstream analysts view the social and environmental disclosures in UK banks' annual reports as "useless" in helping them with forecasting and investment decisions, says new research coming out of Newcastle Business School at Northumbria University.

Richard Slack, a Professor in Accounting, believes his study will trigger fears over capital market analysts' understanding of the broader challenges facing business and their attitudes to issues such as climate change.

Professor Richard Slack

Professor Slack, who will share his findings as key speaker at the ACCA UK Sustainability Reporting Awards at London's British Library on 3 December, interviewed 19 London-based analysts in the banking sector between late 2004 and mid-2006. The ACCA-funded research uncovered "cynicism to complete dismissal" of all voluntary narrative reporting including social and environmental reports, the chairman's statement, corporate governance and risk disclosures.

Analysts help institutional shareholders and other capital market groups understand the challenges facing business and to give insight into future opportunities. Professor Slack said the study, conducted jointly with Newcastle University, left question marks over analysts' attitudes to the environmental challenges facing business. "Social and environmental reporting was universally considered irrelevant and incapable of influencing a financial forecast," he revealed. "There was total dismissal of the importance of environmental issues in taking decisions such as giving loans to potential polluters, for example, and I would suggest that analysts are not taking potential climate change and environmental impact seriously enough."

Professor Slack continued: "Our findings show that analysts are dismissive of anything other than financial metrics, and they deem large sections of voluntary narrative reporting as useless or worse. Analysts have been shown up to be narrow in their approach, often formulaic and rules-driven, and highly unlikely to be a source of change in respect of social and environmental issues. Their approach should be a major concern to wider market participants given analysts' crucial role in the information supply chain."

The findings also represent a real challenge to preparers of annual reports, Professor Slack explained. "If it is the intention of preparers to make narrative reporting relevant and material to investors, they have some way to go or some rethinking to do," he said. "The annual reports for 2006 of HSBC Holdings plc and Barclays plc were 458 pages and 310 pages respectively, and I would have to question the actual usefulness of this surfeit of narrative in annual reports to analysts.

"Whilst some of the wider increase in narrative reporting has been driven by regulatory presence, increases such as social and environmental reporting are largely voluntary. This disclosure is seemingly not even read by analysts and raises serious concerns over its usefulness to them, or their own ignorance of the issues that such reporting seeks to address," Professor Slack added.

The research focused on the banking sector only as it is one of the four main 'volume' trading sectors in London, along with technology, pharmaceutical and oil and gas, and strategically important to the UK economy.

Inspirational Graduate Receives Student Of The Year Commendation

Newcastle Business School — 13/05/2009 14:18:53

A Newcastle Business School graduate, who was paralysed from the waist down during his final year, has won a prestigious commendation for his inspiring success.

Craig Willis has received a commendation from the national Barclays Capital Xcel Business and Commerce Student of the Year Awards just one year after falling from a fifth-floor balcony while on holiday in Majorca.

The 23 year old, from Darras Hall, Ponteland, returned to Newcastle Business School, part of Northumbria University, just weeks after his accident and went on to achieve a first class degree this summer.

He will be presented with the award by Professor Peter Slee, Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Region and Engagement at Northumbria University, on Thursday 4th December at Newcastle Business School, based in the award-winning City Campus East.

Craig Willis with Professor Peter Slee

Craig, who now works for Pricewaterhouse Coopers in Newcastle, said: “I was really surprised to be nominated for the award there are many people more deserving.

"After my accident it was hard to motivate myself but my degree gave me something to focus on.

"I would like to thank all of the staff and students who made it a fantastic experience for me. The support staff were amazing and they did everything they could do to help me."

Newcastle Business School Senior Lecturer Dorothy Fellows said "The word inspirational is overused but it is no exaggeration to say that Craig Willis deserves the epithet. A final year Undergraduate student on the Business Studies degree Craig had successfully completed his year long Industrial Placement when he was paralysed from the waist down as a result of an accident. He also suffered fractures to several ribs and to his right shoulder blade.

“What is remarkable is that he returned to undertake the final year of his studies just nine weeks later, having missed only the first two weeks of teaching.

"Despite the challenges of dealing with these circumstances, the painful physical effects of his injuries (including balancing difficulties) and the ongoing psychological adjustments required of him, Craig has performed remarkably in his academic studies.”

She added: “Craig’s academic achievements are only part of the story however. He maintained an incredibly positive attitude towards all his activities at the University, attending well and punctually, contributing to classes and being pro-active throughout."

"He has been an inspirational student and those who have taught and worked with him have been deeply impressed with the virtues he has demonstrated.”

Professor Peter Slee said, "Craig is an excellent candidate to receive the Xcel Student of the Year commendation. He has shown impressive commitment and determination in the face of difficult circumstances. He has been a credit to Northumbria University and truly deserves this recognition."

Riders On The Storm - Guiding Leaders Through Turbulent Times

Newcastle Business School — 13/05/2009 14:12:31

Newcastle Business School, Northumbria University is to open its doors to local professional service firms via a free morning event aimed to help guide senior level practitioners through the current turbulent economic climate.

As part of Newcastle Business School’s on-going engagement with local business, the school is hosting ‘Riders on the Storm’ – an event that aims to join a number of different professional service firms and provide practical information and a forum for discussion to help encourage shared knowledge and best practice. The event will also provide information and helpful ideas by drawing on research and in-house expertise from Newcastle Business School to help assist firms when dealing with common issues experienced in all professions.

The morning event will be held at Northumbria University’s award winning City Campus East on 15^th June 2009. The event will cover topics such as ‘the North-East business climate –trends and intelligence’ and ‘Keeping your Clients – research and ideas on how client relationship management can help survive difficult times and emerge stronger’.

Sessions during the event will be delivered by the Dean Professor Paul Croney, Professor Jackie Harvey, Professor Richard Slack and Peter Graham.

Peter Graham, Senior Lecturer and organiser of the event said: “Professional service firms are often excellent in their professional knowledge but lack other commercial organisational skills that any sizeable business needs. Newcastle Business School has expertise in assisting such firms to manage their business and clients effectively. We hope that as a result of this event all delegates will benefit from the advice and knowledge shared.”

‘Riders on the Storm’ is a free event for senior level practitioners. Firms wanting to register to attend should click here or call 0191 243 7507.

Top Marks For Outstanding Marketing Graduate

Newcastle Business School — 13/05/2009 13:44:43

Janice Rowe, A Newcastle Business School graduate has won an award for her hard work after getting the highest marks in her MA degree.

Janice Rowe received the Chartered Institute of Marketing North East Postgraduate Student of the Year Award as she graduated from the two-year part-time MA in Marketing course at Newcastle Business School.

The 25-year-old from Monkseaton, Whitley Bay, carried on working in her full-time job at as a communications officer at Northumberland College while working towards her degree but still achieved a distinction.

She said, "It was difficult balancing work life and study but it was definitely worthwhile and I enjoyed my time at Northumbria University.

Prize Winner Janice Rowe with Programme Director Richard Gay

"I was very surprised when I found out I would receive the award and that I had the highest marks in my class.”

Richard Gay, Programme Director of Postgraduate Studies in Marketing and Logistics, said, "Janice has produced an outstanding set of results across the MA Marketing programme to achieve her distinction. To do it by part - time study shows a high degree of commitment to develop her marketing skills and knowledge.

"Janice completed the programme with an excellent dissertation report that applied marketing concepts to an important work place issue at Northumberland College where she is employed. The programme has always been very successful in providing a platform for career progression.

"Rather than rest on our laurels, we are looking to relaunch a new flexible part-time Masters in Marketing from September 2009."

Business School's Senior Managers Hit High Spots In Kuala Lumpur

Newcastle Business School — 13/05/2009 13:24:22

Senior members of Newcastle Business School’s Executive Management Team at Northumbria University are about to hit the high spots as they deliver a workshop from the world’s tallest twin buildings this week - the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, which stands at 1,483 ft.

Professor Paul Croney, Dean, and Associate Deans Jane Turner, Executive Development, Professor Sharon Mavin, Research and Consultancy and Bob Woodward, Corporate Management Development, will be exporting the University’s particular brand of executive development and coaching to an audience of more than 100 senior executives and future business leaders from the vantage point of The Knowledge Café on Tower One’s 40th floor.

The visit builds upon Newcastle Business School’s established international portfolio and its ability to engage with organisations worldwide.

There has been an overwhelming response from Petronas’ senior managers who wish to attend the workshop where Jane will be conducting a seminar on the theme of 'authentic leadership development - an essential approach for the 21st century'.

Jane says “We will be covering subjects such as the reality of being a leader, the development process involved and importantly, asking the question “why would anyone want to be led by you?"

'Authentic leadership development substantially underpins our ethos within the Executive Leadership Development portfolio that I lead. This is a great opportunity to strengthen the Newcastle Business School brand and reinforce our position as a leading player among international business schools.”

The team is also visiting UEM Group (United Engineers Malaysia Berhad) in Kuala Lumpur and delivering a workshop based around organisational values.

UEM Group has more than 40 major operating companies worldwide.

Professor Mavin comments: "The workshop on organisational values should be particularly interesting since the UEM workforce comprises Malaysian, Chinese and Indian nationals. We already have 300 UEM managers on a bespoke Masters in Business Leadership programme which we have developed and believe there is potential for further engagement with UEM over the delivery of other aspects of our portfolio which could be of interest to them.”

As part of the visit, the team is also coaching senior colleagues from a partner Malaysian University who are studying the Newcastle Business School's Professional Doctorate in Business Administration (DBA). INTI University College senior academics study both in Malaysia and in Newcastle a part of their Doctoral research in business and management practice.

Developing Future Leaders In Sri Lanka

Newcastle Business School — 13/05/2009 12:26:58

The British High Commissioner, Dr Peter Hayes and the Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka were among the VIPs present to launch Newcastle Business School ’s BA (Hons) Leadership and Management Programme in Sri Lanka, which was also supported by the Honourable Ratnasiri Wickramanayaka, Prime Minister of Sri Lanka.

A cocktail reception held in Westminster House, Colombo was the official launch of the programme, which is run by Newcastle Business School.

Commenting on this exciting development, Professor Craig Mahoney, Deputy Vice Chancellor of Northumbria University said;

"I am delighted that Northumbria University’s Newcastle Business School is now offering the BA (Hons) Leadership and Management in Sri Lanka. This completion award is an innovative work based degree programme delivered over one year in Sri Lanka and supported by staff from Northumbria University.

Northumbria University has been working extensively across Sri Lanka for many years and is constantly looking at ways to develop new links and further strengthen existing ones, providing greater opportunities for Sri Lankan students to access UK university education."

The programme was developed for the Sri Lankan market with the support and advice of Northumbria University’s local representative, Business Management School in Sri Lanka.

Newcastle Business School Graduate Scores First Place

Newcastle Business School — 13/05/2009 12:11:47

A Newcastle Business School Accounting graduate has beaten more than 700 students from across England and Wales to win a top accountancy prize.

Rebecca Tweedie, who trained at Newcastle Business School, has been awarded the Little Prize by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW).

The prize is presented to the student who achieves the highest marks in the taxation module of the ICAEW's ACA accountancy qualification.

Rebecca now works as an assistant auditor in the Newcastle office of the National Audit Office auditing the financial accounts of the Department for Work and Pensions.

She said “Working for the NAO has given me the opportunity to undertake challenging, practical work on issues at the heart of Government, while at the same time receiving the support and training I needed to get through my exams.”

Rebecca Tweedie graduated BA (Hons) Accounting from Newcastle Business School in 2007. As a student at Newcastle Business School she was awarded the Chartered Institute of Taxation Prize for Taxation on the final year of her BA (Hons) Accounting course and the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants Prize for the best student in her second year.

Donald Halliday, Programme Director at Newcastle Business School said: "All of us here would like to add our warmest congratulations to Rebecca on an outstanding achievement.

“The ICAEW qualification is a prestigious one, and the accountancy profession recruits from the best of graduate talent each year. The National Audit Office is a major employer and a great supporter of the work we do here at Newcastle Business School. This is wonderful news for all of us in the North East.”

The Little Prize was set up in 1960 in memory of Leo T. Little, who was editor of Accountancy magazine for over 20 years.

Wendy Kenway-Smith, Assistant Auditor General of the NAO and head of National Audit Office's Newcastle Office, said “Beating over 700 graduates to such a prestigious, national prize is a fantastic achievement by Rebecca

“Her success demonstrates the excellent career prospects that the National Audit Office offers to graduates in the North East.”

Jim Summers, President of the Northern Society of Chartered Accountants, congratulated Rebecca and added “The NAO is the largest trainer of ACA students other than accountancy firms, which demonstrates the flexibility of the qualification and its relevance to both the public and private sectors.”

Latest Business Barometer Results (April 09)

Newcastle Business School — 09/05/2009 12:23:15

By Jackie Harvey (Professor in Financial Management) and Richard Slack (Professor in Accounting)

The analysis of the latest North East Business Barometer is being written against the background of the measures agreed at the G20 economic summit and their favourable reception by financial markets evidenced by the FTSE100 climbing back through the psychological 4,000 benchmark, a level not seen since the middle of February; although it should be noted that this is still a long way from the peak of 6,700 reached in early July 2007.

Despite the desire to grasp any signs of recovery (last month's minor jump in house prices for example) as being indicative that we have reached the nadir of the current crisis, the reality for UK PLC still makes pretty grim reading. National Statistics data for the last three months of 2008 show that GDP fell by 1.6% (its biggest quarterly fall since 1980) to stand 2.0% lower than for the same period 2007. Add to this the dramatic slowdown in manufacturing output (fall in output from production industries of 4.5% during the fourth quarter four following on from a fall of 1.8% in the third quarter); the further fall of 0.8% in service industries output over the same period (-0.5% quarter three); the rise in unemployment to 6.5% for the three months to January 2009 (1.3% higher over the year); and finally, the rise in the savings ratio, which having been negative for part of last year rose to 5% during the final quarter of 2008, the highest level since the end of 2005. It is evident that we are not yet out of the woods.

In our last business barometer published in November 2008, some 42% of respondents expected turnover to fall; 47% anticipated a reduction in the workforce and the general business climate was perceived as uncertain by 53% and pessimistic by a further 33%. The fragility of market confidence was perhaps best illustrated by the fact that while only 2% of firms were operating at well below full capacity earlier in 2008, 31% of firms were in this position in November. So how are things today? The latest survey indicates that just over half of all respondents (52.5%) are expecting turnover to fall and just under three-quarters (72.5%) described the general business climate as pessimistic. On a slightly more positive note only 17.5% anticipate any further reductions in workforce with half expecting the workforce to remain at its current size and only 12.5% of respondents indicated that they were operating at well below full capacity. This suggests that structural adjustments have already taken place, although it is concerning that for many, the expectation is of further contraction in turnover.

Unsurprisingly, the key business risks are still seen as being a tightening of credit (45% compared to 42% in November) and lower consumer spending (37.5% compared to 39% in November). It is evident that there is no expectation that this situation is likely to improve in the near future. Consistent with the national picture, production is unlikely to pick up given the continued absence of consumer demand, a situation that is forecast to continue at least until the end of this year and probably longer. Despite all of the recent attempts to ease the flow of credit within the financial system, credit constraints and a lack of finance were identified by 62.5% of respondents (compared to only 28% November) as an inhibiting factor in the event that expansion was contemplated. A new area included in this survey focussed on the potential disruption arising from a breakdown in supply chain due to business failures elsewhere. Interestingly this was identified as a risk by a tenth of respondents.

While failing to have the desired impact on credit availability, monetary easing has contributed to depreciation in the value of the currency, a factor that was commented upon in our last survey. It is unlikely that the pound will move significantly away from its current trading range which will be beneficial for the 37.5% of businesses with overseas markets.

The impression gained is that possibly the major adjustments in response to the recession may have taken place, however, there is no expectation of any great improvement until at least the end of 2009. It will be interesting to see if signs of recovery come through in our next survey at the end of the year.

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