Talking sustainability and business with Deborah Meaden!

Dragons’ Den star Deborah Meaden has shared her thoughts on sustainability and business in an exclusive interview with two OU Business School academics, Prof Ali Ataullah and Dr Rodion Skovoroda.

In three separate videos on OU Connect, the trio talk about opportunities for global economic development, how do we measure sustainable efforts, and how can policy or regulation help confront climate change?

Professor in Finance Ali and Rodion, a Senior Lecturer in Finance, were the academic consultants for the recent OU / BBC co-production, The Big Green Money Show, on Radio 5 Live and BBC Sounds. Deborah and Felicity Hannah were the hosts of this podcast, in which they talked to some of the world’s biggest business names about climate change and sustainability.

Ali and Rodion said: “Deborah’s answers were both substantive and inspiring. A rare combination. Such a great guest to have.”

Policing wins prestigious AACSB award

The Business School has been recognised for its ‘Policing Excellence’ in AACSB International’s (AACSB) Innovations That Inspire member spotlight programme, which highlights ‘impactful and visionary institutions creating value for tomorrow’s business world’.

The accolade is thanks to the pioneering work by academics in the School’s Centre for Policing Research and Learning (CPRL) and the Department for Policing Organisation and Practice (POP), working alongside 24 policing partners to create and share knowledge to improve policing.

CPRL was set up in 2014 and now works with 24 police forces across the UK, covering two-thirds of the country’s policing workforce. POP has worked in collaboration with North Yorkshire Police to co-develop a number of police education programmes to offer formal qualifications for students.

AACSB (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business) is the world’s largest business education alliance and one of the accreditors for the Business School’s elite triple accreditation status. Now in its eighth year, the Innovations That Inspire initiative has recognised 214 business school efforts during that time including 25 this year.

Read the full article here 

Learning at Work Week 15 – 21 May

OpenLearn, The Open University’s free learning platform, is a proud partner of Learning at Work Week, an annual event dedicated to the importanceof lifelong learning. 

To help you get the most out of your learning objectives this year, we have developed a number of resources including useful blogs and articles, links to videos and webinars, and daily tasks that can be completed in as little as 4-20 minutes. 

Check out the activities on our website (from Tuesday 9 May) or head over to OpenLearn where you could work on your digital skills with the course Digital skills: succeeding in a digital world or brush up on your Business communication: writing a SWOT analysis. With so many free resources, there's lots to discover and plenty of options for lifelong learning.

Lloyds Bank CEO to speak at CVSL annual conference

Paul Streets OBE, Chief Executive of the Lloyds Bank Foundation, is the keynote speaker for the Centre for Voluntary Sector Leadership (CVSL) annual conference on Thursday 25 May. 

With voluntary sector organisations facing challenges linked to the current financial crisis, practitioners, policymakers, funders and researchers will discuss their experiences and share ideas on how the sector can support the communities facing economic challenges.

Also speaking at the conference is Ed Mayo, CEO of Pilotlight, and the former CEO of Co-operatives UK, New Economics Foundation and National Consumer Council.

Lifelong learning is key to future success

Following The Faculty of Business and Law’s (FBL’s) sponsorship of the Institute of Directors (IoD) Women’s Leadership Conference in Northern Ireland last month, OU academic Dr Lynsey Quinn has shared her key takeaways in a new blog, reflecting on the importance of lifelong learning in order to be successful in today’s changing world.

The theme for the conference, which aimed to unite a community of inspiring and innovative leaders, was ‘You can’t be what you can’t see’. Dr Lynsey Quinn, Lead Manager for Skills and Partnerships at the OU, discusses how recent changes, including an ageing workforce, technological advancements, and increased awareness of mental health, have affected how we live and work. She argues that upskilling and self-investment is paramount to cope with future challenges, and that colleagues must role model behaviours to create change.

The event itself was a sell-out success and featured world-class speakers including former children’s tv presenter and social activist, Baroness Floella Benjamin DBE OBE and Gráinne McNamara, Managing Director - Technology Strategy Team at Accenture.

Accelerating entrepreneurship support in universities in Kenya

The OU Business School (OUBS) has received a £50,000 consolidation grant from the British Council, through the inaugural Innovation for African Universities Programme, for an international partnership project.

Academics from OUBS, including Senior Lecturer in Management, Dr Michael Ngoasong (pictured), who is the partnership’s principal investigator, are working alongside local partners, such as Riara University Kenya, to support Accelerating Entrepreneurship Support in Universities in Kenya (AESU).

This extra funding will support effective transition to blended learning, helping the university to prioritise subjects that are in high demand within the surrounding communities and collaborating with partners to tailor existing curriculum along the same lines. 

Helping the next Martha Lane Fox (she’s the OU’s Chancellor!)

Do you have experience of incubators or accelerators? Could you spare an hour for an interview about this knowledge? If your answers were both ‘yes’, your assistance is needed into research on the benefits of incubators and accelerators for our undergraduate business students (on the Innovation and Enterprise Pathway).

Our researchers want to find out:

• how existing incubators and accelerators are supporting the development of sustainable enterprise (especially through online engagement with entrepreneurs), and the challenges and opportunities they face;
• the nature and scale of support needed by students who aspire to start their own businesses and/or grow their existing enterprises;
• the design and operational features of virtual incubators/accelerators that can support students in improving their employability and enhancing their entrepreneurial journey.

Please download the Participation Information Sheet here for more information, and contact OUBS-Alumni@open.ac.uk if you are able to help.

Faculty-backed festival in Belfast breaks the mould

The Faculty of Business and Law was one of the sponsors for the recent Imagine! Festival of Ideas & Politics. 

The aim was to provide high-quality showcases for the discussion of contemporary political and societal issues including new ideas on politics, culture and activism.

Olga Jurasz, now Professor of Law in the OU Law School (sister to the Business School) shared her research on online violence against women and girls across all four Nations and insights in her session ‘Online violence against women: Let’s break the mould’. 

Hosted by Megan Fearon, the OU in Ireland’s Senior Manager, Policy and Public Affairs, Olga was joined on the panel by politician Cara Hunter, Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA), and Kelly Andrews, CEO of Belfast and Lisburn Women’s Aid.

What type of leader am I?

MBA alumnus, Dr. Oleg Konovalov, has written an article for CEOWORLD Magazine about the different types of leaders and the importance of clarifying vision in order to be a successful leader.

Who am I? What do I do? Where do I lead my people? These three questions, he states, are crucial in defining visionary leadership and he explains how leaders can fall into three main categories: Inventors, space creators, and people visionaries.

Dr. Oleg, author of THE VISION CODE: How To Create And Execute A Compelling Vision For Your Business, is a thought leader, business educator, consultant, and coach with over 25 years of experience operating businesses and consulting with Fortune 500 companies internationally.

Success for OUBS alumni's initiative to empower women engineers

An initiative set up by a former Business School Alumni of the Year (highly recommended) that seeks to empower female electrical engineers in the Middle East and Africa is going from strength to strength.

Ahmed El-Hamaky set up OMICRON Energising Women (OEW) in 2020 to support women hoping to become electrical engineers. OEW has recently featured on the cover of OMICRON Magazine in an article explaining how the initiative has become a huge success, with nearly 200 women participating in events discussing the challenges and possibilities in the field.

Ahmed received his posgraduate certificate in Business Administration in 2014 and won Alumni of the Year Achievement Award - Highly Commended in 2021. As well as contributing a blog  about his inspiration for the OEW initiative, Ahmed has also featured as an inspiring case study about the powerful impact of leaders who learn.

CVSL Annual Conference 2023 - Voluntary sector organisations’ response to the rise in cost of living

This free online conference, hosted by the Centre for Voluntary Sector Leadership (CVSL), will bring together practitioners, policymakers, funders and researchers to discuss their experiences and share ideas on how the sector can support the communities facing economic challenges.Paul Streets OBE, Chief Executive of the Lloyds Bank Foundation, is the keynote speaker and Ed Mayo, CEO of Pilotlight, and the former CEO of Co-operatives UK, New Economics Foundation and National Consumer Council, will also be speaking.

Find out more here.

The Trusted Executive: Nine Habits that Inspire Results, Relationships and Reputation

A webinar led by Dr John Blakey, founder of The Trusted Executive, a leadership development organisation that helps board leaders across all sectors adapt to the 'new normal' of trust-based leadership using the unique models and tools from John's books 'The Trusted Executive' and 'Challenging Coaching'.

Find out more here.