The Faculty of Business and Law (FBL) is thrilled to welcome Prof Mark Durkin as our new Executive Dean. We asked Mark to say a few words about his ideas and plans for FBL in the coming year:

“I am honoured to have joined The Open University and to be part of the future of both the Business and Law Schools. For educators, there has never been a more exciting time! Technology is increasingly impacting the way we deliver education and how we engage learners. With student success at our heart, it’s important we remain at the forefront of these advances and, since joining FBL in December, I have been exceptionally impressed with the team’s desire to innovate and deliver on cutting-edge developments.

“For wider UK society, having a working population that can think and act differently around opportunity – and can confidently find opportunities in uncertain environments – is the foundation of an entrepreneurial economy. By providing transformational, high-quality business and management education on an international scale, we can continue to play our role as responsive and inclusive agents of positive change.

“Following the Business School’s 40^th anniversary last year, I am confident there will be much to celebrate in the coming months; from marking the 10^th birthday of our Centre for Policing Research and Learning (CPRL), the journey of our new Black Leadership Empowerment Programme (BLEP) and continuing to share the inspiring stories of our flourishing alumni.”

Business and Law co-productions with the Beeb

A new showreel of our co-productions with the BBC, featuring snippets of television and radio programmes from the last academic year (2022-23), is now available. Business and Law experts were academic consultants for several popular series such as The Big Green Money Show, The Bottom Line and Parole.

The OU partners with the BBC on more than 30 co-productions each year, providing academic consultancy across content for TV, radio, podcast and digital channels. Through this collaboration, the OU and BBC reaches millions of people across the UK and globally with high quality, factual and inspirational content across some of today’s most complex and powerful subjects.

Viewers of all OU / BBC collaborations are also invited to delve even further into the programme’s subject matter via the OU Connect website.

The Bottom Line with Evan Davis is back

A new eight-part series of the OU / BBC co-production The Bottom Line is on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds, with academics from the Business School as its academic consultants.

Professor of Work and Organisation Studies Cinzia Priola and Dr Oznur Yurt, Senior Lecturer in Operations and Supply Chain Management, have worked on the series which is hosted by OU honorary graduate Evan Davis (pictured).

This business conversation show explores a different topic every week and features industry leaders giving their insight. In the past, shows have covered a range of fascinating ideas such as the purpose and pitfall of rebranding, whether supermarkets are profiteering, and turning passion into profit.

The Bottom Line is broadcast weekly on Thursdays at 20:30 on BBC Radio 4, with repeats on Mondays at 11:30, and is also available on-demand via BBC Sounds. Listen now.

Going ‘Inside the Factory’ with our Matthew

A Senior Lecturer in Information and Knowledge Management from the Business School, Dr Matthew Hinton, is one of the academic consultants for another OU / BBC co-production, Inside the Factory (Series 8), which continues on Sundays at 20:00 on BBC2.

Presenters Gregg Wallace and Cherry Healey (pictured) hit factory floors across Britain for a snoop around their supersized production lines. The 10-part series has already explored the production of Yorkshire Puddings, Jelly Beans, Jeans, Stuffed Pasta and Stout with plenty more still to come! Watch now.

OU awarded £7.7m to protect women and girls online

Our researchers have been awarded £7,730,000 from Research England to create a new centre for protecting women against violence online.

Last year, the OU released findings from the largest-ever survey conducted about online violence against women and girls. It revealed that one in 10 women in England (15%) have experienced online violence, three in 10 (30%) have witnessed online violence, and one in eight (13%) have experienced violence online that then progressed to offline violence. The findings also showed that seven in 10 women (68%) believe that current legislation is ineffective at tackling the problem.

The centre, based in Milton Keynes, will develop research to inform law, policy, technology development and practice to prevent and reduce harms suffered by women and girls online. It is expected to open later this year, with a cross-faculty and cross-disciplinary team led by the Law School’s Prof Olga Jurasz. Read more.

Business and Law courses top the OpenLearn charts

Two Business School courses were again among the most popular on the OU’s free learning resource website OpenLearn in 2023.

‘Introduction to bookkeeping and accounting’ once more proved the most popular of OpenLearn’s 900 courses. Over eight hours, this explains the fundamental rules of double-entry bookkeeping and how they are used to produce both the balance sheet and the profit and loss account. Regularly updated to stay current, it has clocked up a total of 110,000 enrolments since it was introduced in 2013.

Featuring at number five is ‘MSE’s Academy of Money’ which has been in the top five every year since its launch in 2020. This free badged course has since provided the skills and knowledge for more than 60,000 people to help master their finances. It was written by our Senior Lecturer in Finance Martin Upton with MoneySavingExpert (MSE) providing support and guidance.

New recruits for Black Leadership Empowerment Programme (BLEP)

A Lecturer in the Business School, Dr Fidele Mutwarasibo, continued to champion the new Black Leadership Empowerment Programme (BLEP) at a recruitment fair in Manchester. Hosted by The Prince’s Trust, this event also involved representatives of AutoTrader, Manchester Airport Group (MAG) and Inclusive Companies.

Fidele, who is Director of our Centre for Voluntary Sector Leadership (CVSL), thanked the business partners, AutoTrader and MAG, for providing the resources to deliver this hub in Manchester. He went on to praise Paul Sesay from Inclusive Companies for contacting the OU to express his concern about the lack of a bespoke leadership programme for racialised minority leaders. Fidele also welcomed The Prince’s Trust collaboration with several of their alumni expressing interest in joining the hub.

BLEP, one of the Business School’s responses to racial inequalities exposed by the pandemic and the Black Lives Matter protests’ call for racial equity in 2020, will launch in February.

How can SMEs develop their ESG strategy?

Richard Blundel, Professor of Enterprise and Organisation in the Business School, explores what small and medium-sized (SME) businesses can do to develop their Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) skills and move their organisations forward in an article for SME Today.

This follows the OU’s recent ESG report which revealed that skills gaps are holding businesses back when it comes to implementing change.

Richard, who is also Director of our Centre for Social and Sustainable Enterprise, says that owners of SMEs are now taking increased interest in ESG and what it might mean for their businesses.

The article in SME Today, the national digital magazine for UK SMEs, discusses the background of ESG, ESG frameworks and metrics and how businesses can take the next step. Read full article.

SHORT COURSE SPOTLIGHT: Organisational behaviour in the workplace

This course looks at how people connect with business and other organisations in an increasingly digital society. The focus is on interactions inside and outside organisations, and the wide variety of environments that organisations network with in our economic, political, and social world.

You will delve into internal organisational behaviours, how organisations relate to their wider environments, individual behaviours of senior managers and their impact on the external environment. You will also learn how developments in external environments and increasing digitisation impacts our own behaviour and our roles as citizens.

James’ AMBA award commendation

MBA graduate James Boyce was ‘highly commended’ in the Student of the Year category at the AMBA and BGA Excellence Awards on Friday 19 January.

Working as a full-time British Airways (BA) pilot, James progressed with distinction through his MBA and was nominated for being ‘an outstanding MBA student whose exceptional leadership skills, entrepreneurial spirit and innovative mindset set him apart’.

The AMBA (Association of MBAs) Student of the Year Award recognises students who have shown exceptional career potential and who AMBA believes can act as ambassadors for the high quality of accredited MBAs and the opportunities these programmes provide for students.

James said: “I was thrilled to be shortlisted as a finalist in the AMBA Student of the Year award, so to be recognised as ‘highly commended’ was brilliant. My MBA has played a huge part in my career, and as well as providing me with knowledge that I can draw upon in a range of different scenarios, it has also changed the way I think about business and management."

Meet Sharon, MBA alumna and dedicated tutor

Associate Lecturer (tutor) Sharon Davidson has starred in a social media video campaign for the OU in Wales, aiming to highlight the practical and sector experience OU tutors bring to their roles.

Sharon (pictured), who has an MBA with the OU and a professional background in communications in Whitehall, has worked for the Business School since 2014.

She said: “For my ‘interview’, I explained how committed I felt about the OU, as I had obtained my MBA with it. And how I wanted to replicate the first-class student experience I had, for my own students, and the sheer joy from seeing my students be successful in their studies. I could bring both a student and a tutor perspective to promoting an organisation which I have felt emotionally invested in since the 1990s. I see the OU as my university, and I want it to be the same for others too. Being ‘open to all’ is a very real ethos which has allowed me to succeed via non-traditional means, and it’s this I wanted to promote to others.”

How influential are you as a leader?

20 February, 12:30 - 13:15

Picture this: a leader who commands attention the moment they walk into a room. Their ideas resonate, and their presence exudes confidence and credibility. That’s leadership presence – the secret sauce of influential leaders.

In this free webinar, brought to you by The Institute of Leadership, speaker Judith Germain will share how you can elevate your leadership by having the right presence and influence to make impactful change. At the end of the webinar, she will share a tool where you can discover your influence score, identify areas for improvement, and receive immediate, actionable steps for increasing your score and impact.