Lloyds Rights Issue

Maybe you saw that Lloyds is embarking on a £13.5bn Rights Issue. If you already own Lloyds shares you will be given the option to buy 1.34 new Ordinary shares for every 1 you hold, at 37 pence each.  One might expect that Lloyds would be looking for additional funds after the HBoS take-over that was encouraged by the UK government.  It has since then emerged that the value of HBoS was inflated by a secret loan made by the Government and also that apparently Lloyds chief executive and the former chairman both knew about the secret arrangement. This was not disclosed to the investors during the time of persuading that a take-over of HBoS would be a good idea. With this loan, and another such secret loan made by the Government to RBS, having been repaid early this year it is not surprising that funds are low. No, I’m not going to refer to bonuses again…

My MBA class is now busy with the Integrative Project that sees them competing against each other in a virtual market – lots of hectic decision-making and, dare I say, a bit of industrial espionage taking place! After that we have a week of revision before the exams. And then, before we know it, it is time to pack our bags and set off for the Christmas break.

And now it’s all over…

Well, this semester’s classes at least.  Yes, my not so new MBA class have now completed the classes this semester and are now busily preparing for the Integrative Project that takes places this week. Then it’s revision and exam time, and in a few more weeks and we will all be way for the Christmas break. Tempus fugit as a very dear friend of mine would always say. Next semester we will welcome a number of exchange students from EADA, Fisher College of Business, ESSEC Business School and Schulich School of Business. I’ll also welcome back Bidzina who’ll be taking the next stage of his Modular programme. So a lot of new inspiration into the programme.  I like this because it prevents the ‘group think’ that could otherwise easily emerge in a comparatively small MBA class.

This week also sees another graduation ceremony. A number of MBAs from the 2008 intake will present themselves for the traditional capping with the bonnet, allegedly made from the material from John Knox’s breeches. If true that of course makes it very old. A small item was added recently though. Piers Sellers (alumni, astronaut and ecologist) took a university emblem with him on one of his space jaunts and this emblem was later fashioned into the bonnet. You won’t find many bonnets like that! But as always it will be a happy and sad occasion. It’s good to be able to celebrate with the soon-to-be-alumni but also sad to say good-bye.  I do hope that I’ll get the chance to meet with many from the supporters’ team: the family and friends of our students.  That is always a great pleasure.

If you visit regularly you will have noticed that it has been some time since my last entry. I caught flu (no not the flu) at a busy time so couldn’t stay at home which is the best cure for flu. Therefore this has been lingering producing fatigue. I say I’m fine but I think only a good long Christmas break will mend this.

The run up to Copenhagen

Countries, organisations and individuals are preparing for the UN Climate Change conference in Copenhagen in December.  Hopes are high that real results will be reached but in that context it was interesting to see the list from the EU Commission of industries that because of competition restrictions should be pardoned from paying for carbon emissions the next five years. The list include industries such as coal mines and vineyards. Do we detect a pattern? The publication of the list is even more surprising given that  EU will be asking other major CO2 emitting countries such as the USA and China to get their act together at the upcoming conference. Although the EU seems to be prepared to drop the list if a proper international agreement can be reached in Copenhagen. Call me a cynic but I don’t think we will make real progress until the major Governments in the World find their parliaments two inches deep in water. And it is difficult because we don’t know how any of the changes that we want to make will affect the economy.  This is the most frequent explanation for not doing enough – we can’t afford it. I shall refrain from making the obvious rhetoric reply.

The MBA class is doing well.  We are in week eight of teaching. Next week is the last week of classes before our Integrative Project. After that it is time for revision and exams before we take the Christmas break. Next semester we move on to the Strategy courses and electives. We will welcome five exchange students from Essec Business School, Fisher College of Business and Schulich School of Business.

Coming to Zurich on 28 October?

If you’re in Zürich on 28 October then feel free to come and say Hi at the MBA Fair at the Dolder Grand Hotel. It’s part of the in the World MBA Tour and you can read more here. It will be my first visit to Zürich and I expect to have an interesting time.

Here in Edinburgh we are now in Week 6 of classes.  This week there is a break in proceedings to allow the MBA students a breather but also to participate in some very interesting personal development activities. We take a step back and invite external observers to come in and give feedback. It’s good to change the pace a bit during a busy semester and the week will also allow for some time for reading. After this week we only havhe another three weeks to go before we move on to the Integrative Project and assessments.  And then, before you know it, it’s Christmas.

No I didn’t get lost

On my way back from Barcelona I mean. I was side tracked by lots of other stuff.

The GMAC European Conference was rather exciting and I thoroughly enjoyed most of the sessions. A temperature on 25° Celcius in Barcelona rather added to the good mood I must admit. As mentioned in my last entry the theme was “Selecting for Success”. Sessions included talks by Julia Tyler and Alex Chisholm of GMAC; Philip Delves Broughton known for his somewhat critical views of the MBA; Professor David Bach from IE in Madrid; Lieutenant Colonel Eilean Cunningham, Head of Operations at the British Army Recruiting Group Headquarters; Alison Parrin, Career Development Programme Manager at Google; Professor Martha Maznevski from IMD; and Srikumar S. Rao, the creator of “Creativity and Personal Mastery”. Julia, Alex and Philip outlined what talent the employers seems to needs while David Bach headed a session where we from the MBA programmes could learn from the way the British Army recruit their leadership talent and also form Google’s way of recruiting. Both Eilean and Alison were very open about their procedures, what they were looking for and how they identified it.  Martha then taught us about bias and gave us tools to identify subconscious bias. Before close of the conference Srikumar explained how things might be seen in a completely different light. All in all a very exciting conference.

But I suppose that you are expeting me to talk about bank bonuses… It has certainly come to light here in the UK again, with rumours of up to £6bn being earmarked for bonuses in banks. Let’s see whether they actually go through with it. Mervyn King was certainly very explicit in his views about the folly of this.

Selecting for Success

That’s the name of the GMAC conference I’ll attend tomorrow and Wednesday in Barcelona. It is of course about schools selecting (MBA) students who are the most likely to succeed during and after the programme. You can read more about the conference here. We won’t just share our own experiences. We will also learn from speakers who are involved in very different kinds of selection processes and see what are the characteristics they look for. And maybe more importantly, how they identify these. I’ll fly back on Thursday and be back in the office on Friday. I’ll tell you more about the conference then. I won’t have any time for sightseeing but it will be a chance to meet the GMAC London team to thank them for their help during our recent succesful membership application. Yes, the University of Edinburgh Business School is now a member of GMAC.

Did you know that Bank of China has 650 million customers?

No. Neither did I but it was one of the many interesting bits of information that I picked up at a recent guest presentation by Daniel Cohen of IBM.

Dan was here to talk about how to conduct business in China and it was a very interesting talk. We heard about the many impressive achievements in China and the speed by which things happen, especially infrastructure developments. And the fact that the Chinese economy has to grow 7-8% every year simply to provide jobs for that year’s graduates. These were just some of the examples that Dan used to frame his talk. The key message from Dan was that if you don’t get relationships then you might as well give up on doing business in China. He was kind enough to mention a number of the more important issues, many of which amused the China/Taiwan/Hong Kong contingent of the audience. So did his welcome greeting in Chinese.

If you have kept a note of it then you will know that the new MBA class is now in their third week of classes. Merri (our Careers Management Adviser) and I have just completed the last of the individual sessions. It has been a very useful exercise, to learn about the career aspirations (or confusion) of everyone. These sessions will then be used to inform the career related activities in the programme but also, and more importantly, to line up individual support: course selection, internships, consultancy projects, exchanges and the final project and all that. Exciting times ahead!

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650 million….

Population of Denmark: 5.3 million…

Hmmm….

The “crunch” still there…

Although I have not written much about this lately (the arrival of a new class means that I have little time to read the news in-depth) the World economy is still suffering. I read in a Danish money newsletter that one in eight Americans receive food aid. According to the stats this is the highest number ever and about 3.6 mio Americans have joined the scheme this year. The average support is $113 a month. Remember, this is food aid. It basically means that 12.5% of Americans can’t afford to feed themselves. Scary that!

Then it is comforting to see that the IMF reports that the World economy is on its way back on track and that the economy will grow in 2010 and probably more than expected – the estimate is 3%. However, IMF Chief Economist Olivier Blanchard warns Governments about things thinking that the crisis is over. Private spending is much needed to turn this round and with unemployment still on a high it is likely to take time. I suppose one might summarise this as “Spend but don’t over-spend”, as some certainly used to do.

The new PT MBA class has arrived

Yesterday evening saw the arrival of the new Part-time MBA class. As opposed to the Full-time MBA and the MBA in International Business, the Part-time class is recruited locally but don’t let that trick you into thinking that it is not an international group. Edinburgh is a very international city and this is reflected in the class so although the majority of students come from the UK as many as seven countries are expected to be represented in the 1st year class. Although these people live and work locally they will come from different educational backgrounds and many will have worked in other countries as well. That’s what’s making it all so exciting. Although the class is not my main responsibility I will on many occasions be involved with the class and will also serve as back up for the Programme Director Simon Earp. So a full-house now – it’s great!

So much potential

During these first weeks the MBA Careers Management Adviser, Merri Scotney and I meet will all our new MBAs on an individual basis. We find that it is so very important, early on, to get an impression of everybody’s career thinking so as to ensure that we provide the best possible support. In doing this we ensure that we highlight the aspects of the programme that can be of particular service in achieving the stated career objectives such as consultancy projects, exchanges, internships, etc. Hopefully we can get to a situation where all or most of a student’s MBA activities point in the right direction. It is also important early on to find out whether stated career objectives are realistic or whether a stage-by-stage approach needs to be adopted. And I do see a lot of potential in my class.

Yes, I do think of them as ‘my class’. It may sound odd to you but when you work closely with a group of people then I suppose it’s only natural.

I was thinking the other day about how innovation change our language – I wonder is there an App for that? Or will I have to surf, not the sea but the Net for an explanation? We have quit searching, now we Google. I’ll Skype you instead of phoning you. And so many other terms. Any suggestions?