"If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?" (Albert Einstein)

Yesterday I attempted, and failed, to get to the Reading Whiteknights campus without getting lost. My third attempt to do it seamlessly. I am, however, picking up a fairly well mapped knowledge of the suburban side streets of east Reading. The reason for going over there was to join colleagues from Greenlands (we must nowadays avoid saying "from Henley" in the context of meetings within the Business School) in a research awayday - our first stab at bringing the two faculties together to discuss a research agenda.

It's not going to be all plain sailing.

If Henley (here I use it to mean the College) was known at all for research, it was best known for either the type of faculty-led enquiry that is likely to lead to practitioner adoption, or the type of practitioner-led problem that required more rigour in investigation than most companies are prepared or equipped to do. This is sometimes referred to as "Mode 2" research.

Reading was, and is, very well known in the circles that know these things for its "Mode 1" research agenda, which is driven by successful applications for grant monies from public bodies and measured by the amount which reaches publication in the 4 and 5-star refereed journals in the area of the research being carried out.

So which one rules? Or do you do both? These questions are not at all trivial because a lot of other things affect and are affected the direction you take. If publication is key for institutional and personal position and reputation, then those undertaking that type of research need the luxury of time and training to focus on it. If practical application and excellence in delivery are important, then other things follow.

The College faculty were most recently drawn up around five schools of thought leadership. These, of course, are not to be abandoned - they feed a lot into the MBA programme, for example, but they do need to adapt to whatever strategy for research that the new Business School decides to follow.

The Merger, which in many ways was always a good match, will find that the Devil is very much in the detail. It is actually quite exciting to be part of such a discussion. For many of the Greenlands faculty, the door to scholarship beckons, while for the Whiteknights faculty, there is a chance to bring their agendas face-to-face with end-user organisations and managers. Let's hope that both ends of the research continuum continue to be valued.

Playlist

Here are 10 of my current favourite pieces of music; my version of an iTunes play-list. Most of them I can listen to again and again. In no particular order:

1. 'What Difference Does It Make?' - The Smiths
One of their best songs, showing the perfect mix of elements that made them special. I saw the Smiths play live twice, once at a university gig in Kent when they first made it big, and another at a GLC concert in London when they were at their peak.

2. 'Utru Horas' - Orchestra Baobab
I came across this track searching for some music to play alongside a PowerPoint presentation at Henley. It works so well because it can sit in the foreground and the background.

3. 'Suite for solo Cello No. 1 in G Major - 1 Prelude (Bach)' - Yo-Yo Ma
I really can listen to this short piece over and over again.

4. 'Into My Arms' - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
There are plenty of Nick Cave tracks that I like (love, in fact) and I not only think he is one of the strongest lyricists around but as a live band they are just about the definition of cool. This is one of his quieter tracks - a beautiful love poem.

5. 'Riders on the Storm' - The Doors
I love the polished menace in this song and have been able to listen without tiring of it since I was about 15.

6. 'Paris, Texas' - Ry Cooder
Great film soundtrack.

7. '(Birtwistle's) Girl in A Shop' - The Fall
The fact that I don't usually have a clue what their songs mean doesn't mean that I don't enjoy hearing them again and again. This is my current favourite. I think the John Peel quote, "The Fall - always different, always the same" sums them up.

8. 'Fohat digs holes in Space' - Gong
This is from one of my most treasured LPs, "Camembert Electrique" and is for me the best track on the album,

9. 'There's No End' - Holly Golightly
Lovely, groovy twangy guitars and moody girl vocals.

10. 'Blue 'n' Boogie' - Miles Davies
Made for Sunday listening. Ni-i-i-ce.

Yoga's bearable

Just completed my second Yoga class. It's much harder than it looks!

Actually, although it reveals one's own physical limits and imbalance in quite a cruel way, it's the extent to which it was mentally challenging that I found interesting. I think it could be a very long process to reach (in every sense) anything like competence in it, even after two sessions the effects are evident - more centred, more awake and (somewhat) in pain.

It has also got me thinking more about the question of mind versus matter, which has also surfaced lately in my reading for the PhD. Expect a blog entry on this once I get my ideas together.

At Henley, we're coming in to the last full week of work before Christmas. Quite a year.

e-Newsletter for November & December

Dear all,

The idea that we live within, not apart from, a globally inter-connected world is not new and has been around since at least the 1970s, but the economic events of the last few months have probably revealed with frightening (though hindsight) clarity how the world’s major economies have become linked in a complex system and how trying to understand and make corrections using only tools of linear cause and effect is about as useful as trying to deal with California’s forest fires simply by making sure that there are never any fires in the forest.

It’s interesting to note that these things only become truly obvious when something happens to cross a threshold of bias and force a change to the system. Business Schools, and in particular MBA programmes, have come in for a fair amount of stick in recent years for being in part responsible for our current woes. This debate will continue, of course, and I hope both that you all manage to avoid the most unpleasant aspects and effects of the recession, and that you grab the opportunity to incorporate personal and professional insight with both hands.

This newsletter, delivered a tad late for November, will double as the e-newsletter for December. Henley will re-open after the Christmas/New Year break on January 5th

Henley on LinkedIn

We’re up to nearly 3,600 members of the Henley LinkedIn group now, and I’m glad to report that there are a healthy number of discussions going on. If you haven’t joined LinkedIn, or have but haven’t joined the Henley group there, you can do so by rewquesting this online. Please make sure your profile is up-to-date and accurate about your Henley studies, otherwise it’s very difficult to approve your request.

Jargon busting

Work in any organisation long enough and you tend to use all sorts of acronyms and abbreviations as short cuts to communication, and it has been pointed out that some may need some explanation. For example, I often refer to intakes with a two-letter/number code. “HB” stands for those intakes studying directly with Henley (Henley-Based). Other countries are usually designated by a country code, such as DK for Denmark, SA for South Africa etc. I will think about doing a blog entry with a small glossary. It’s worth remembering that there are over 3,000 of you who receive this email in excess of 110 countries and in almost 70 active MBA intakes.

New Intakes

This weekend we welcomed three new intakes to the Henley MBA at a starter workshop at Greenlands. New groups from Ireland (IE02), Malta (MT02) and Germany (GM02). Hopefully they are all now energized by their workshop and busy analysing everything back at work, whilst carefully filing their reflections on HenleyConnect. We are now in the build up to recruitment of the next HB (quick jargon test) intake, which kicks off at the end of February 2009. Again, if you have any contacts or colleagues

Home Straight News

With the inclusion of those in HB30, the population of the Home Straight Community now stands at 261 members. Nearly half of these have yet to submit a proposal, so a major focus of the efforts of Mike and Richard is support for this. Ultimately, though, only those people can do the work, so if you are in this position, please make sure you go online and look at the ‘Dissertation Builder’, a very useful resource. Details of the next Greenlands Home Straight Event will be included in the January newsletter.

By the way, those of you coming to the very end of your studies and about to complete and submit your dissertations please don’t forget to check whether you have completed both of the compulsory 50-hour electives in good time. It’s all too easy to lose the focus on anything else in the Dissertation, and it can cause all sorts of problems if you get all the way to the finishing line and realise that you dropped the baton at the last inter-change!

Research Corner

Those who posted requests for participation in last month’s newsletter received excellent responses, so many thanks for that. I always believe that it’s good both to support fellow learners’ efforts in gathering data and also see what techniques are being used, which may help when you come to gather your own research data. This month, an external link which may interest you:

Paul O’Nolan, an MBA student at London’s Westminster Business School, has made MBA alumni networks and social networking the topic of his MBA dissertation. He is seeking the help of fellow MBAs to take part in an opinion survey for his dissertation. His questionnaire should not take more than 5 to 10 minutes of your time. It is anonymous. All information will be kept strictly confidential, and will not be used for any purpose other than for Paul’s MBA research project. To access the electronic survey, please click on the following link: [removed from this blog entry].
Paul’s questionnaire has been sent to the alumni associations of every business school in the UK and Ireland as well as to some national and international MBA alumni associations. The survey closes on 12-Dec-2008 and participants will receive summary reports of the results in Feb-2009.

Then, from one of our Full-Time MBAs, Najam Mahmud, for those of you active in the Asian region:

As part of my final phase of MBA I am doing a dissertation/management report and the title of my study is: Identifying effective people management strategies for the Asian Emerging Markets – A Multinational perspective (key focus on India, China and Middle East). In order to gather some primary information I have developed a questionnaire that should not take more than 20 minutes to complete. I sincerely hope you will take the time out to complete this questionnaire, brief details of the study are as follows: To complete the survey please go to this link and once finished you can submit online: [removed from the blog]

International Business Environment elective – last call

This is a call for anyone currently thinking about taking advantage of the March 09 extra elective, the International Business Environment elective trip to Budapest. The cut-off for sign up is Friday December 12th. Payment will be due by January 9th 2009, so we will want to hear from you now even if your payment comes in January. As things currently stand, there are not enough of you signed up to run, so now’s the time to act….

Access to the University of Reading Library and Wi-Fi

Many of you will by now have received an email from me giving you details on how to access the University of Reading e-library and Eduroam-Web Wi-fi access. If you haven’t received it by the start of next week, please contact your programme administrator. It may be that your spam filter caught the email.

Events

A couple of forthcoming dates for the diary (from Amanda Proddow):

03 December - Survive the recession with help from Henley Business School - Free expert advice evening in the City, British Bankers' Association (BBA), Pinners Hall, London.

04 December - The London Alumni Group - Christmas Networking Event - Building a Business from Scratch with Paul Johnson & Jeremy Richardson, founding Directors of Kew Green Hotels. Price to alumni £20.00.

For full details and booking instructions for the above events please go here http://www.henley.reading.ac.uk/news/hbs-events.asp

March 2009 (date tbc): Pharma Forum - Creating Market Insight: Addressing the Gap between Strategy and Implementation, Henley Business School, Greenlands Campus contact irina.woodford@henley.com

May or June 2009 (date tbc): Pharma Forum - The Reality of Emerging Markets for Pharmaceuticals, Henley Business School, Greenlands Campus contact irina.woodford@henley.com

*Sunday 5th July 2009 - Members' Family Day at Greenlands, Henley. Please note that this event is on a Sunday next year. Full details will be available on the web from 1st March 2009.

Holiday opening times for the Greenlands library

The PowerGen Library will be open at the following times over the festive period:
Sat 20th December 10.00-15.00
Sun 21st December 10.00-14.00
Mon 22nd December 08.30-17.30
Tues 23rd December 08.30-17.00
Wed 24th December- Sun 4th January CLOSED
The Library will re-open at 08.30 on Mon 5th January.

Good luck to all of you who are taking exams this week, and enjoy a well-earned rest of the Christmas holidays (though I suspect not a few of you will be busy working on pre-reading, core reading, research and writing). Run Towards It!

Chris

Tintin's Adventures in Academia

Spent two and a half days blissful at Lancaster Business School this week being a student. The occasion was one of an series of get-togethers which are arranged for the disparate group (numbering a potential 30) of part-time PhD in Management Learning and Leadership candidates.

I deliberately drove up a day early to be able to spend some time in the library there doing some writing and making some last-minute adjustments to the presentation slides for my slot, on Thursday morning, during which I was due to outline my thoughts and deeds so far.

The library, like many central university libraries during term time, was full of people younger than myself, many reading, some typing, most multi-tasking study with chat. Time zipped by. This joy of retreat into library environment to think and write is a new discovery for me, and when I can I also sneak away from my office (no chance of doing anything other than admin there) and off to the library at Henley, where I have to overcome the odd looks from some of the students; it's an odd sensation of having 'crossed the line' into learning territory.

The presentation went well, with a balance of counter-point opinion voiced and compliments made to make me feel that the ordeal of verbalising your thoughts to an academic audience just sharpens your thinking. Where I'm falling short at the moment is in getting through more reading and getting on with more writing. Always be writing - this appears to be a maxim for actually completing a PhD.

The whole experience continues to be good. After all, 12 months ago, there's no way I would have been reading a book called "The Gnostic Jung and the Seven Sermons to the Dead" (which sounds like a Tintin adventure, I know).

Talking in circles?

Sitting in a Qualitative Research workshop at Henley this afternoon and it's a session on interviewing in research data gathering. My project will be using a lot of interviews, and a thought has struck me.

Many researchers will be able to place their interviews on a continuum that ranges from unstructured to semi-structured to structured. But perhaps there is another continuum, one which looks at the extent to which the reactions and changes to the interviewee as a result of being interviewed is part of the research.

• At one end, the interview could be seen as simply a channel to access data (mining?) and what is transmitted in the interview leaves the interviewee untouched and unchanged and whether or not the interviewee changes is of no interest to the researcher.
• In the middle is an area where the interviewee, indirectly but as a result of the interview, finds routes to personal change. However, that change is not germane to the research question and is not of interest to the researcher.
• Finally, at the other end, is whether or not the interviewee finds change (at least in part) is the research question.

Is there a mix of levels in the dual purpose and circularity in the latter? 1. I'm collecting data from you and on you, and my questions are, in part, responsible for the data that I'm collecting. 2. I am interested in how you learn and how you change, and I'm starting from the position that you are limited in your current habits of learning.

More thinking needed...

Book early for Christmas

Sales of my novel [The Messenger's Falling] are picking up!

I can truthfully say that I have seen a 30% increase in sales in October, though I dare not tell you what that equates to in real numbers because the base number is rather low. No matter, there it sits proudly on Amazon, who also seem to be selling it via secondary book dealers and would make a ideal stocking filler.

All present and correct

In the past week or so I have presented my thinking and ideas for my research twice - once to a research colloquium on the Henley DBA programme, and the other (much more nerve-racking) as a shorter version to the modular MBA group.



There is something very sobering in presenting to those who are themselves on their own journeys at doctoral level. It is reassuring to find that they fear the same things you do, are discovering the same dead-ends and enduring the same self-doubt. They also exude the same energy and enthusiasm for learning that can grip you when (if!) you have the luxury of getting your head down and into your project for a few days. October was a desert for my research, but I hope that November will be different - not least because I am down to present my work so far in Lancaster at the end of the month, as well as to my supervisors. The presentations have helped me order my thoughts, but they're no substitute for time to read and space to write...


The second presentation I made, at the weekend, was to try and drum up volunteers to help pilot some early ideas and techniques for interviews. I was very happy with the response, with six people coming forward (I only needed two) to assist in December. It seems that something about the research area and idea captures the imagination.

October newsletter

Dear all,

Rituals can play an important role in the creation of a sense of belonging. Twice yearly the graduation at Henley is such an event; a regular and reassuring milestone in the life of the school. As with all rituals, it engenders a sense of tradition and can create a feeling of stability and connection. There is also the risk that a ritual can become formulaic and formalised, hiding rather than revealing, so it’s always a fine balance. I probably wasn’t alone in feeling that this month’s afternoon graduation ceremony at Greenlands, despite the evident mix of nerves, pleasure and meaning for the individuals graduating, was in danger of becoming rather mechanical. Then the Dean announced the presentation of a posthumous award of the MBA to a distance learning candidate who died tragically just after dissertation submission. His MBA was collected on the stage by his young son, who can only have been about 9 or 10 years old. It was a task no-one would have wished on him, and he performed with quiet assurance and strong dignity - a dignity which did not diminish after he had sat down and, after a moment, the tears came.

I don’t think anyone attending was untouched, and probably in as many different ways as there graduands, guests, staff and faculty. For me, the feeling was one of a sudden shift in focus from the very immediate to extend out to a web of meanings outside the marquee.

Home Straight Community Up-date

There was another Home Straight meeting at Greenlands a day after the graduation ceremony. Roughly 35 people were in attendance and Richard and Mike ran excellent sessions identifying and focusing on some key elements of getting the Dissertation started, keeping it going or polishing it off. One of the previous day’s graduands, Neil Faulkes, gave a short presentation of his journey and Dissertation database tutor Ken Bull was also on hand to advise and guide people to some of the online resources, including the online bibliographic databases and the Dissertation Builder.

The Community continues to see successes in helping members to submit within registration and now the idea is being exported to other modes of MBA study.

Dissertation Clinic

The next Dissertation Clinic at Henley is due to be held on December 2nd at Greenlands. If you’d like to attend, please contact Sue Thomas on as soon as possible.

Research Corner x 2

Claudia Luca, from HB28, writes: “Ever wondered how your distance learning compares to full-time campus study? This dissertation seeks to validate the idea that distance learning students are more likely to gain the knowledge and skills that will benefit their future careers compared with students who choose a full-time campus experience. The online survey below will take just 60 seconds of your time and as a special incentive you can enter a free prize draw and could win £100 of high-street vouchers sponsored by my employer Resource Development International. Please click the link below to begin your survey: [link removed for blog entry] Thank you for your participation and good luck with the prize draw!"

Anthony Singer, from HB30, sent me this: “I’m hoping to have the research squared-away in November and any extra responses from my MBA colleagues would be much appreciated. My dissertation is looking at how managers rate public relations as an organizational function and the consequences of a PR department’s reputation on its ability to do its job. So I’m looking for managers across all disciplines and industries (who are not communications specialists) who wouldn’t mind sparing 12-15 minutes to take a survey of their views of public relations.

It can be found at [link removed for blog entry]. A copy of the results will go to participants on request.”

If you are in need of respondents for your survey, or on the hunt for a dissertation topic, let me know.

Course Reps Meeting

Thanks to those who attended on the 24th October. Aside from dealing with the usual agenda items, we were given a presentation about the new branding and image Henley Business School has adopted, and everyone was able to meet Professor John Hendry, Deputy Dean and Head of the School of Management. We also looked at the initial data from the 2008 Annual Survey. The scores will soon be posted on HenleyConnect in the programme support or programme information area. The next reps meeting will be in May 2009. Reading is very keen on promoting student involvement.

Wi-Fi at Greenlands

The Wi-Fi is now up and running with hot-spots in many public areas. We will be issuing logins and passwords over time, and these will allow you access whilst on-site and also wherever you come across the Eduroam-web Wi-Fi network (used on many campuses). If you are coming to Henley before you have received your login, you can request a temporary guest login from the reception. This will remain active while you are on-site.

This Wi-Fi login will also act as your access data for the University of Reading library. Liz Osman, of the Greenlands library writes, “For MBAs, borrowing rights will be granted at the same time as electronic rights. You will not have any borrowing rights etc at Reading Library until they have received their Reading username and password, after they have been added to Reading’s databases. This is the key to unlocking all the services. Alumni do not have rights at the University of Reading Library aside from reference access. Anyone can access the University of Reading Library for reference purposes, regardless of whether they have been issued their username and password.”

Henley on LinkedIn

There are now over 3,400 members of this group. LinkedIn have been adding some features to enhance the group area, including the ability to link to news stories which might be of interest to others and discussion threads. There’s a good one running now asking whether Henley was the right choice (like there’s any doubt?).
If you’re on LinkedIn, you can apply to join the group, but please remember to have your profile up-to-date and accurate about Henley first.

IBE Elective, Budapest March 2009

One for the diaries of anyone beyond either their ISP or IMP on the MBA is this week-ling elective on International Business Environment, which will run next March in Hungary. Full details and sign up are available in the electives area on HenleyConnect.

Calendar of events

Linda Thorne informs me that the following event is coming up and is open to you:

Accenture - David Mann, Managing Director of Management Consulting for the UK & Ireland
Henley Business School, Greenlands
Tuesday 11 November 2008Registration from 6.00pm, Presentation 6.30pmFree to Students & Alumni (£10-00 for Guests)

David Mann, Managing Director of Management Consulting for the UK & Ireland – David is responsible for Accenture’s management consulting practice of 1500 professionals. He is a strategy practitioner with a focus on corporate strategy specifically as regards to M&A, finance and operating model design and implementation. In addition to his client work with leading multi nationals, David is a frequent speaker on thought leadership within the firm. David was one of the 3 authors for the original Accenture High Performing Business paper which was recently named by the Harvard Business Review as one of the ten most notable initiatives in the field during the past quarter century. David is a graduate of the University of Technology, Sydney, NSW and has a Masters of Finance and Accounting from the same institution and has an MBA from INSEAD. To reserve a place please email Linda Thorne.

You can also find out other event details at www.reading.ac.uk/events.

Next month I’ll be giving you one of my occasional run-downs of numbers of assignments being presented to the Programme Examiners Meeting (which used to be called the Board of Examiners), as well as info on the average grades being achieved.

Progress? What progress?

Being a PhD student contains many inherent contradictions, or mental struggles, that one must face in order to create meaning in the experience. The first of these is the debunking of "science" and the tearing down of the walls of academic hubris that seem to stand between the novice and the doctoral title. I, possibly along with many others, still feel the esoteric awe and draw of the PhD - that my aim should be as high and as noble as those people whose academic papers I am constantly asked to refer to, and that my scope can only be all-encompassing in order to say anything worthwhile.

There are many hints as one travels along this path, however, that this is actually not "rocket science" (I'm not including PhDs in Rocket Science, of course) and that you are being asked to learn the craft, not show complete mastery in it. This realisation is a beautiful thing for the novice, even when it leaves you no further up the mountain.

Another real issue for the person pursuing this study part-time yet working, somewhat paradoxically (given the finite number of hours in a day), full-time is the sinking feeling that you are making no headway. It's not that you are working on it but getting nowhere, it's just that you are not working on it at all - doing no reading and even less writing. This has been true for me in October and much of September, and although you may need to be quite selfish and ruthless about blocking out time for PhD progress, I am glad to have found that it hasn't stopped me thinking about it. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I could knock out a semi-coherent abstract for Lancaster about my title and intended study, which I reproduce below and which I note has changed significantly since the beginning of the year.

'Title: The impact of a Systemic, Transgenerational view of a learner's family-of-origin on Critical Reflection for higher levels of learning in post-experience Management Education.

Personal Development has become a widely used term to describe learning in an individual and organizational setting, yet many attempts at change seem to fail and truly transformational personal development remains illusive.

One of the criticisms that may be leveled at Management Education, arguably true of the 'Anglo-Saxon' business ethic also, is that it has preferred the simple solution to the complex one, even when the complex is the more insightful. Equally, as the question "am I doing the thing right?" should really be preceded by the question "am I doing the right thing?", so the commonly stated starting point in management development of "what is my goal?" might usefully be preceded by "who am I?". An unconscious understanding of self develops forcefully and early in our family system, which can include complex relationships and stories from previous generations.

By revisiting the common intellectual ancestry typified by general systems theory, circular causality and cybernetics shared between systemic family therapists and management educators who adopt experiential learning methods or view organisations as complex adaptive systems, this study will explore, over a period of two years, the effect of deliberate Critical Reflection on family-of-origin on managers who are simultaneously engaged in a professional development process.

The framework used will draw on the epistemological approach of Gregory Bateson who sought “the pattern that connects”, and whose theory of communication and model of hierarchical levels of learning have in turn influenced many in the fields of clinical and development psychology, as well as practitioners in Management Learning. Field work will encourage questioning and reflection of habitual 'taken-for-granteds' inherent in family history and development, and will investigate whether a holistic and systemic understanding of self equips managers in attaining higher levels of learning in the sphere of business and career.'

e-newsletter for September

Dear all,

There have been lovely misty mornings followed by brilliant late summer blue skies here at Henley. Yet the leaves are also beginning to turn and every now and again a gust of wind sends a shower of them floating around and down, reminding us that - for all the stillness and serenity - this also is a period of change. The seasons and the cycle of the year at Henley, with comings and goings, starters and graduations, are nothing new. In fact, I’ve often commented on them in these newsletters because they are part of the rhythm of learning. But while some change is the result of adjustment to a regular and inherent cycle, some other change is a result of the impact of the unpredictable, even of the random. We may all be learning something about this now in light of the continuing shocks in the banking sector and search for equilibrium. Our new persona as Henley Business School may well turn out to be a smart move if it provides the stability to evolve and adapt to what some are seeing as a significant shift in the management paradigm.

I had the pleasure of visiting the Henley team in Trinidad this month, which made an interesting contrast to my August visit to the Henley Nordic office in Copenhagen. In both cases, I learned a lot about the environment, social as well as economic that equips me better to understand what you, as programme members on this incredible journey, have to deal with. Pulling all these different strands and cultures together into one unified Master’s degree is akin to a high-wire tightrope walk; you have to balance keeping focused on the goal AND keeping aware of what’s going on around you.

The 2008 Annual Survey

This year 385 of you completed the survey, an increase on last year of 248! Many thanks to those of you who took the time to put your thoughts down. Right now I am in the middle of reviewing your additional comments in order to summarise them alongside the more quantitative indicators.

I’m very pleased to say that in 13 areas of measurement your average satisfaction levels are up on those reported in 2007, including the big one - where you provide an overall verdict on the Henley MBA. I have now got 71 pages of collated comments to get through, so no doubt there heaps of things to fix alongside the heaps of praise. The full results should be available for distribution by mid October.

Course Reps Meeting

The next meeting of the Course Representatives for those of you studying direct with Henley (“HB” intakes) in the UK will be on Friday October 24th. If you have an issue or question you’d like raised, please let your course rep know this in advance.

Home Straight Community news

The next Henley Home Straight event here at Henley will be on Sunday October 19th. Mike and Richard will be sending out invites to all those eligible to attend, and if you are coming you can expect to receive input from others at a similar stage in their dissertation on how they are coping and what strategies are working, or not working, for them.

The Home Straight Community continues to be an effective motivating tool for those who are taking advantage of it and is another way of bridging the gap between where you are now and shaking hands at graduation. Testament to this is the fact that approximately 11 members are submitting their dissertations each month. The impact of getting involved is summed up in this quote from one programme member:
“I'm pleased to say that I submitted my dissertation on Sept 10th. A major relief! Although I only attended one of the Home Straight sessions, I have no doubt that it was responsible for setting me on the right path after a few months of dithering. I cannot thank you enough for pressing on with the home straight community, its really worthwhile.”

Dissertation and Research Corner

Markus Haag is conducting research on personal knowledge development in e-learning environments. He writes:

“Learners’ individual-level values and cross-cultural differences in an e-learning study cohort arguably influence personal knowledge development and learning. Investigating the relationship between values and personal knowledge development is central to a PhD research project conducted by Markus Haag at the University of Bedfordshire, UK.

The focus is on how the e-learners themselves experience learning processes in e-learning environments and how this impacts on their personal knowledge development. A questionnaire that investigates the learners’ experience of personal knowledge development processes is currently being developed. These processes are modelled on the basis of Nonaka’s SECI model, a framework for investigating the interaction between tacit and explicit knowledge in the spiral of knowledge creation. The results of the questionnaire will then be correlated with the results of the Portrait Values Questionnaire, a tool for measuring the scores of the ten individual-level values of the Schwartz Value Survey.

In one of the upcoming newsletters, links to the Portrait Values Questionnaire and the questionnaire investigating personal knowledge development processes will be distributed to this list. I am inviting you to fill in these questionnaires and participate in this project. Through your involvement in this research, you will personally benefit as your data will be analysed and you will be sent your personal scores on the ten individual-level values of the Schwartz Value Survey, together with a description and explanation of the survey and the values it contains. Similar to a psychometric test, this will give you an insight into what values you consider important and what values particularly motivate and guide you in your life.”

And here is an encouraging message from Dr Richard McBain:

“I am very pleased to announce the results of two recent research competitions. Firstly, the Henley Keith MacMillan Research Paper Competition (2008) is aimed at current Research Associates and recent graduates, in recognition of publication of research. This year, the prize has been won by Jacques Barnea and the paper by Geir Thompson was highly commended. Secondly, the EDAMBA thesis competition is open to all EDAMBA member institutions. Henley Research Associates have had a very successful track record in this competition, being placed in the top ten every year. This year, again, we were very pleased to congratulate Dr Lior Jassur on his third place, and Dr Jürgen Dahlhoff for his top ten position. Warm congratulation to all concerned.”

Dr Lynn Thurloway has asked me to remind all those writing their dissertations that there is a word limit of 15,000, plus 20% (i.e. 18,000 words). It’s easy to get carried away writing your dissertation (not something you ever believe at the start of it), so unless you have a really exceptional counter-argument, those that exceed the word count maximum will be returned unmarked.

Henley in the Economist rankings

The EIU full-time MBA rankings for 2008 are now out, with mixed blessings for Henley. The bad news is that, overall, Henley has dropped from 10 to 20. This should be tempered by the fact that all MBA rankings contain a time lag and that the impact of the new MBA curriculum probably is not yet measured by our placing. The good news is that Henley retained its number 1 spot in two key areas, “Personal Development/Educational Experience” and “Potential to Network”. We also retained no 2 position for “Increase in Salary”.

Who’s-who at Henley (an up-date)

John Hendry, Head of School, has just announced two new appointments. Professor Roger Palmer will become Associate Head of School for qualification programmes, including the Distance Learning, Executive and Full-time MBAs. Associate Professor Peter Race is to become Associate Head of School for faculty, and effectively takes over from Professor Abby Ghobadian. Carola Hillenbrand has taken over from Stephen Lee as Subject Area Leader for the module Reputation and Relationships and Claire Collins replaced Paul Aitken as SAL for Leadership and Change.

New Intakes – two huge intakes of fresh air

New intakes are like taking in lungs-full of air for the School. This weekend we welcomed 80 new programme members from Denmark (including our first group of managers from the Faeroe Islands), Sweden and Finland to their first workshop here at Greenlands. This number represents a healthy increase in recruitment in all three locations. Later this week, we expect a similar, high number of new entrants on the next Henley-based intake, HB39. This will mean that we have met our most ambitious recruitment target of the year and is a positive start for the new Henley Business School.

Consultants Fair

Tony Restell, of Top-Consultant.com has asked me to make you aware of the date of the next Consultancy Careers Fair. As he says, “this year it's taking place on 9th / 10th October and with the jobs market being tougher this year we're expecting candidates to find the chance to meet employers face-to-face even more appealing that ever. If you'd like to make your members aware of this, the link with further details and registration process can be found at:
www.theconsultancycareersfair.com”

Other Matters

Engineers have been installing the cables and software to enable the new Wi-Fi access around Greenlands and the system should go live in the next week or so, bringing a much improved service to all our members. Conveniently, this should go live around the same time that the refurbished toilets are reopened. They’re adding the final touches to this now, although there is a slightly worrying sign posted outside the door which reads “Caution – operatives working inside toilets.”

If you are at Part Two of the old version of the MBA curriculum, you need to remember that December is the last chance to sit the Part Two exam for the first time. Contact your administrator for more details, and you will be getting another letter from me to remind you. We are organizing a Part Two exam prep workshop here on November 10th. Contact Susan Parr for details.

The booking form for the International Business Environment elective study trip to Budapest next March will be online in a few days. Finally, Saturday 11th October sees the first Henley Alumni Ball, which is a black-tie affair and which will be held here at Greenlands. For anyone looking for last-minute bookings, contact Irina Woodford.

August e-newsletter

Dear all,

We’re coming to the end of our first month as Henley Business School. HBS. I’m probably not the only one biting my tongue occasionally when out slips the word ‘College’ in a sentence, but we’re all getting more used to referring to ourselves in our new format. Mind you, it has been a shock to discover that August is not a month to get anything done in a university; quite a few new processes and practices will emerge only from next month onwards. I’ll try to provide up-dates to some of those as we go along.

So, what does it feel like? For me, it’s a bit too early to tell. I still arrive at work and am able to acknowledge how lucky I am to be working here (even on the bad days). We have a big chance with the merger to examine who we are, what we do and where we are going, and that is both welcome and necessary. At the same time, you have to keep the existing programmes going, and that can be frustrating in a handover period where new structures are not yet set, or not set concretely. So, a briefer than usual letter this month (no river tales)…

Henley Business School on LinkedIn

The group that 3,019 people have so far joined on LinkedIn has now been renamed and is also now benefiting from some increased functionality that LinkedIn have introduced (from today) to their group environment. You can now initiate and participate in a discussion forum with other members of the group, as well as clearer updates and a more user-friendly way to contact other group members. John Kenworthy has already started a discussion thread there, so you can go in and contribute to test the system.

A pocket who’s who

The merger has acted somewhat like a closed season football transfer period, and we have some new faces on the MBA bench. In the new structure there are five ‘Schools’ (Management, Economics, Real Estate & Planning, ICMA and Corporate Learning). Professor John Hendry is Head of the School of Management (and Deputy Principal of Henley Business School). Neil Gibbons, who was Director of Open Programmes, which includes the distance learning MBA, has moved to head up Business Development for HBS. We are waiting to see who will replace him but that person will be working directly with John. Directors of Study for the three modes of study for the MBA are unchanged (myself, Susan Rose and Marc Day). Each module on the MBA has a faculty member who is the subject area leader and there have been one or two changes to these in recent months. For example, Claire Collins is now SAL for the Leadership and Change module in Stage 3. In administration, David Stannard is Faculty Director of Administration, which includes many of the registrar functions. I’m very glad to say that the teams of staff who work most closely with programme members in support areas remain unchanged. Liz Cope has joined me as PA, so anyone with a non-programme related issue can also go to her.

Home Straight News

The next Home Straight meeting (for Henley-Based members who are beyond their due date for Dissertation submission) is on Sunday October 19th, one day after the graduation ceremony. Anyone coming to this will see the giant marquee still standing – hopefully this is simply spur you on to finish. Details will be coming to you from Mike and Richard in due course.

Annual Survey

At time of writing, over 350 of you have so far completed the 2008 Annual survey (a big increase compared to 2007!). This will remain open to you to complete until Sept 15th, so if you haven’t yet, you can. I’ll have preliminary results of this survey in September’s newsletter.

Upcoming new Intakes

Recruitment for the next Henley-Based intake, HB39, and also for the Nordic (Denmark and Sweden) and Finnish groups has been brisk and we are looking forward to welcoming some large groups here at the end of next month. Thanks to anyone who has been doing their own, quiet marketing among colleagues and friends – it’s the strongest form of selling for a programme like this.

Good luck to all of you sitting an exam in September, wherever you may be in the world.

Back in Lancaster

I have travelled up from Oxford to Lancaster for a meeting with my doctoral supervisors. I chose to come by train mainly to have some extra reading time. This feels like a luxury when it's supposed to be a staple of this kind of studies. Sometimes it even feels like a guilty pleasure. So I will need to find ways of taming the all-enveloping demands of the Director of Studies role in order to make way for a more organised approach and settle into my topic. I'm constructing my preface, my angle, and also am developing some pilot research protocols (which just means writing down how I will find some human lab rats to experiment on).

The train journey was, in many respects, useful and not unpleasant. Mind you, Virgin trains haven't cracked the seat reservation problem and many people who boarded after me were unable to get seats, despite having reservations, because others (also with reservations) had sat in their places because they in turn had found other already in their place when they boarded. Just the kind of complex knock-on problem that management schools love to say they equip you to deal with.

However, I am beginning to suspect that most business schools don't do this because, at least in part. they have lost common-sense in how people learn, and how they learn how to learn (as well as learn how to unlearn).

So, I'm taking the rest of today and most of tomorrow to sit in front of my keyboard and begin telling a story. But before I do that (PhD I think stands for Procrastinate, Hinder, Distract) , a personal thought did strike me on the train. I was reading about the Ancestor Syndrome and hidden links across generations in families that allow patterns to occur and re-occur, subside and repeat. A paragraph spoke of 'school failure among intelligent children' and I suddenly remembered that my father never completed his formal training to be an architect (he studied under Frank Lloyd Wright, but never graduated). I, too, failed to complete my formal education, leaving college at 17. Perhaps it's nothing. I'd be curious to know whether my father's father had a similar story, though.

The Barbecue at the End of the Universe

It has been a somewhat surreal couple of days at the College. The signs at the front gates were changed on the 31st, directing drivers to Henley Business School, not Henley Management College. It's odd that such a mundane alteration was noticed by so many of us, with more often that not a slight pang of anguish at the reality of the end of one era and start of another.

Staff have been buying up 'old logo' branded mementos which are on sale in one of the syndicate rooms and there were drinks and a barbecue on the main lawn, with a very pleasant atmosphere and quite a few old faces in attendance.

This morning, the new-look web site was up and running and the new flag was flying from the roof of Greenlands. Here we go...

July e-newsletter

Dear All,

Forgive me if I use the word 'College' numerous times in this month's message - like many here I feel the need to say it as much as possible until July 31st, when I shall (with equal fervour) start referring to the 'Business School' instead.

Long-time recipients of these newsletters will have noted that they often feature the River Thames. The river is something we take as an integral part of experiencing Henley, though it’s clear that it has been flowing past this site for a lot longer than the 60 years of the existence of the College. The Thames gives a sense both of constant flow and unchanging continuity, which are great business metaphors not lost on those working or studying in the College (a place one recently retired member of staff described, affectionately, as the “Home for the Bewildered").

Here we are almost on the eve of the move from Management College to Business School. If this month's newsletter had a soundtrack to match the mood at Henley in July, it would probably consist of two competing medleys of hits. Out of one speaker on your PC, Lap-top or earphones would come the type of song that makes one reminisce; "Those Were The Days", “Don’t Dream It’s Over” or perhaps “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now”. Out of the other speaker would come uplifting tunes that look ahead, such as “Don’t Worry, Be Happy”, “Come Together” and, most emphatically, “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet”.

It is quite often asked what we are losing and what are we gaining. On one level, I suppose you could say that we’re losing our independence, some rather idiosyncratic but effective ways of delivering our programmes, and being synonymous with just one particular (high-end) segment of the management education market. And I suppose, were you to continue, you might equally say that we are gaining critical mass and long-term viability, some economies of scale in vital support functions, plus a market reach that should enable us to invest in all aspects of the Henley MBA. By the way, some of these gains will be quick wins, such as much-needed up-dates to some of the facilities (new toilets!), the introduction of free Wi-Fi at Greenlands, and access to you all to the extensive library and e-learning resources at Reading. Others will take more time to emerge and will require both institutions to learn the language of the other before seeing the synergy that will be the litmus test of the merger.

So there will no doubt be a few contemplative faces, a lot of sharing of stories and no doubt even a tear or two on July 31st. Whether we take this new opportunity to place the Henley name among the world's great Business Schools depends on more than one factor but the continued support and involvement of you, our programme members, is certainly one of them. Over the coming months, I will endeavour to keep you all up to date with the key changes, as well as sharing some of the ups and downs that will no doubt also be part of the journey. For now, though, here are July's stories, starting with some post-merger changes:

Henley Business School launches August 1st

Many parts of the College will become part of the School of Management, Henley Business School, from August. Henley Business School will officially exist on two campuses, of which Greenlands will be one. For any of you who attend workshops in the UK, nothing will change in terms of where you come and where you find administrators and tutors. The PowerGen library will continue, and you will also be able to use the University of Reading Library. Expanded e-library facilities will also come on stream for you in due course. Our website will change, but I'm told that it will be very obvious on the new site where you need to sign in for access to your e-Learning area. If in doubt, feel free to bookmark the screen you arrive at now after you have entered your user name and password.

Email addresses of staff and faculty will also be changing. However, the existing College ones will still work for some time to come, and will be redirected to us all. Replies to you, however, will come from our new email addresses. Most of us working on the Henley MBA will have new email formats. Recent briefings by various colleagues at Reading have shown us that there is a huge amount of well-organised information about how the University operates on their main web site, and I understand that we will also be contacting you all with a number of other important "things to know". Do please remember that all your existing contacts, administrators, tutors and so on remain in place, so we will continue to support you as now. In August’s e-newsletter, I will also be giving you all an up-date on ‘who is who’ in the new Business School.

LinkedIn

We broke through the 3,000 member barrier in the Henley group on LinkedIn earlier this month. I understand that the Henley group is now included in a searchable Group Directory. If you are requesting access to this group and your email address was not already preloaded, then it will be reviewed as ‘pending’. It’s sometimes hard to judge this if you haven’t filled in the education section…

Dissertation/Research Corner

One of our programme members, Rohan Badenhorst, is looking to conduct experimental field research (intervention group vs. a control group) for his dissertation around themes involving business social collaborative and (social) networking tools. This can be based around new or existing projects and themes or factors he is interested in exploring include:
Project Management Governance
Trust
ICT skills base (People dimension)
Communication styles & techniques
Project webs
Educational & training philosophy and practices already imbedded in the organisation
Changed or changing People Management practices

Ideally Rohan is looking to conduct this research in a project management based organisation; however, there might be added value in more ‘operationally’ focused organizations exploring factors that will assist in successful projects / programmes implementation. Rohan is willing to discuss methodologies and timeframes with organizations keen to engage in field research studies fitting the above brief outline description. Rohan is a qualified Managing Successful Programmes (TM) practitioner and brings this skill set and discipline to the research organisation's table.

If you have, or are searching for, a suitable topic for someone else as their capstone MBA project, please let me know and I’ll happily advertise it here.

Home Straight Community News

Richard and Mike report that progression out of the Home Straight Community (i.e. people handing in their delayed Dissertations) has been very good, which is a great endorsement of their dedication and attention to detail, as well as the pulling power of being part of a group of other sufferers in the same boat. The community last month welcomed those members of intake HB29 who had reached the Dissertation due date with no end in sight. We will be organizing the next Community event here at Henley probably at the end of October, so keep an eye out for that.

Also of relevance to those of you at elective stage of the MBA is the news that we are planning to run an International Business Environment elective study trip to a European destination some time in March 2009. This is a 50 hour elective, with some group assessed work, which provides an excellent opportunity to view strategic business issues in a new location. Complete details will be posted on the electives portal online in the coming month or so.

2008 Annual Survey

Watch out for a separate email coming to you from me in the next few days. This will be an invitation to participate in the 2008 Annual Survey of Programme Members. Last year, just over 200 of you took the time out to complete this online, so thank you. If you haven’t done this before, it might be an interesting way of adding your input, sharing your concerns or piling on your praise!

Housekeeping

I am asked to remind you all that you need to keep your contact addresses up-to-date on the Henley system. Over the years of study, it is not uncommon to be moving home or job more than once, and if the address we have to send you important documentation or materials is no longer valid, it puts you in jeopardy of failing to be informed. You can up-date your personal contacts, including preferred email, by logging in to your e:Assignments portal.

Terry Garrison

It’s possible that a few of you now at the end of your MBA studies may have come across a strategy professor named Terry Garrison, who retired from the Henley faculty in 2007, though he remained actively involved with Henley in a number of ways. Sadly Terry died suddenly in June. Terry was one of the ‘old school’ Henley faculty, with feet in both camps of academia and business. A great teller of anecdotes (some of which were quite amazingly blue), urbane and always ready to spend time in explanation in the class or as a supervisor, he will really be missed.

That’s it. Le HMC est mort. Vive le HBS!!


Chris Dalton
Director of Studies, DL MBA

Philosophy of Management

The title of this post is not going to foretell any attempt by me to try and write about philosophy, in management or anywhere else. It refers to a conference that was recently held at St Anne's College, Oxford on this topic, mainly for tenured academics but with a day built in for doctoral students who are directly or (like me) indirectly interested.

I attended one of the four days of the conference, at which various academics (drawn from an eclectic mix of disciplines and countries) presented papers, held discussions and occasionally went off on mind-twistingly difficult to follow side discussions about, surprise surprise, philosophy.

I was definitely at both the novice and practitioner end of the pool but nevertheless I enjoyed getting an insight into the processes that lie behind working your way up in academia; for which there seem to be just three simple rules:

• a strong publishing record always outranks teaching and collegiate service
• who you know matters almost as much as (and eventually more than) what you know
• not acknowledging the truth of the above statements will result in slow progression

The Magpie in me did find a few nuggets from my day there. For example, I picked up a very neat idea, which I may use, of providing research subjects in a longitudinal and qualitative study with a digital camera and a brief in order to capture images as part of their reflection process. A colleague from Sweden demonstrated a group process method, using narratives, which I thought will probably work in other training situations. In addition, there were two or three individuals there whose eloquence, grace and charm in communication were great exemplars for the others.

Up a gear

With now just three weeks before we officially merge with Reading, there are plenty of signs around the College that we are in a more agitated gear.

Some of these signs are quite visible. For example, a number of Henley staff seem to have acquired Reading shadows; people from the University who do a similar job and who are spending time at Greenlands trying to understand how we do things here. seeing them around kind of reminds me of the Wim Wenders film 'Wings of Desire'. Since Reading has (had!) no MBA, I don't have a shadow. At least, not one I can see.

There was a time, and there are some here who can still recall it personally, when change was what Henley preached but did not practice and when the expression "I know my place" had resonance. No-one can claim this to be case at Henley in the last eighteen months or so, and if the shock of merging doesn't see us all into an early grave, then I'm sure we will all emerge from this operation much the stronger. The scaffolding, cranes and tarpaulins of a new management structure are being put up around what will be a much-expanded, full service Business School.

I really love this place, this College. I hope we see it out in style on July 31st and then roll up our sleeves and see if we can begin to infect the University of Reading with the best bits of our independent spirit.

The Death of Michael Collins (Part Two)

Following the earlier post on this topic, here I reproduce the words of my Great Uncle Emmet, Major General in the Irish Free State army at the time of the creation of the State of Eire in the 1920s. Emmet was with Collins on August 22nd 1922 and soon after wrote his own short account of the events of those days. His typewritten manuscript, the final page of which is shown in the picture here, has been used as source material in several accounts of those times, but since it is a rare opportunity where world events collide with family history, I take the liberty of including it in this blog.

There is another, subtle and ulterior, motive related to the development of my own doctoral research into the effects in Management Education of Critical Reflection using family-of-origin input. In this instance, for Emmet and also his younger brother Charlie (my grandfather) the extraordinary events of their youth created ripples that are still felt in the family several generations later.

So, back to Emmet's story:

"It was now about a quarter past seven and the light was failing. We proceeded along the open road on our way to Macroom. Our Motor Cyclist Scout was a bout 50 yards in front of the Crossley Tender which we followed at the same interval in the touring car, and close behind us came the armoured car. We had just reached a part of the road which was covered by hills on all sides. The road itself was flat and open; on the right we were flanked by steep hills on the left of the road there was a small 2 ft bank of earth skirting the road. Beyond this there was a marshy field bounded by a small stream and covered by another steep hill. About half way up this hill there was a road running parallel to the one we were on but screened from view by a wall, and a number of trees and bushes. We had just turned a wide corner on the road when a heavy fusillade of machine gun and rifle fire swept the road in front of us and behind us, shattering the wind-screen of our car. I shouted to the Driver "Drive like Hell" but the Commander-in-Chief placing his hand on his shoulder said "Stop. Jump out, we will fight them." We jumped from the car and took what cover we could behind the little mud bank on the left side of the road, it appeared the greatest volume of fire was coming from the concealed roadway on our left hand side. The armoured car backed up the road and opened a heavy machine gun fire at the Ambushers. General Collins and I were lying within arm's length of each other. Another Officer who had been on the back of the armoured car, together with our two drivers, was several yards further down the road to my right.

General Collins, I, and the Officer who was near us opened up fire on our seldom visible enemies, with rifles. About fifty or sixty yards further down the road and around a bend we could hear that our machine-gunners and riflemen were heavily engaged. We continued this fire-fight for about twenty minutes without suffering any casualties, when a lull in the enemy's fire became noticeable. General Collins jumped to his feet and walked over behind the armoured car, obviously to obtain a better view of our enemy's position. He remained there firing occasional shots, using the car as cover. Suddenly I hear him shout "There they are running up the road." I immediately concentrated on two figures that came in view on the opposite road.

When I next turned round the Commander-in-Chief had left the car position and had run about fifteen yards back up the road, dropped into the prone firing position and opened up on our retreating enemies. A few minutes had elapsed when the Officer in Charge of our escort came running up the road under fire, he dropped into position beside me and said "They have retreated from in front of us and the obstacle is removed; where is the 'Big Fella'?" I said he is all right - he has gone a few yards up the road, I hear him firing away." Then I heard a cry "Emmet, I am hit." The two of us rushed to the spot, fear clutching our hearts. We found our beloved Chief (and friend) lying - motionless in a firing position, firmly gripping his rifle across which his read was resting. There was a gaping wound at the base of his skull behind his right ear. We immediately saw that he was almost beyond human aid; he did not speak.

The enemy must have observed that something had occured which had caused a cessation in our fire because they intensified theirs. O'Connell knelt beside the dying but conscious Chief, whose eyes were open and normal, and he whispered into his ear the words of the Act of Contrition; he was rewarded by a slight pressure of the hand. Meanwhile I knelt beside them and kept up bursts of rapid fire, which I continued whilst O'Connell dragged the Chief across the road and behind the armoured car. Then with my heart torn with sorrow and dispair [sic] I ran to his side. I gently raised his head on my knee and tried to bandage his wound, but owing to the size of the wound this proved difficult and I had not completed my sorrowful task when his eyes quietly closed and the cold pallor of death covered his face. How can I describe the feelings that were then mine, kneeling in the mud of a country road not 12 miles from Clonakilty with the still bleeding head of the Idol of Ireland resting in my arms. My hear[t] was broken my mind was numbed, I was all unconscious of the bullets which still whistled and ripped the ground beside me. I think that the weight of the blow would have caused me the loss of reason had I not observed the tear-stained face of O'Connell distorted with anguish.

We paused for a moment in silent prayer and then noting that the fire of our enemies had greatly abated and that they had practically all retreated, we two, with the assistance of a third Officer who had come on the scene, endeavoured to lift the body on to the back of the armoured car. It was then that we suffered our second casualty, the recently arrived Officer being shot in the neck. He, however, remained on his feet and helped us to carry our precious burden around a turn in the road under the cover of the armoured car.

Having transferred the body of our Chief to the touring car where I sat with his head resting on my shoulder, our sorrowful little party set out for Cork.

The darkness of night had closed over us like a shroud. We were silent, thinking with heavy hearts of the terrible blow we would soon deliver to our unfortunate country and to the Irish people throughout the world. We had left Cork City that morning - confident and contented - intent on improving the machinery of the only possible representation of the Government that could bring peace to a sorely-tried long-suffering people. We had with us the man to whom the people of Ireland had entrusted their welfare; the man who had risked his life so often in their interest; the main who was loved by his friends and respected by his enemies. Our day had been a succession of triumphs. And now, at its close, like a bolt from the sky, fight had been forced upon us. We had fought with success - but our victory was nothing in the immensity of our loss. He was gone.

We had suffered the loss of a generation - we lost what the contrition and remorse of a nation cannot restore. The country had lost its leader - the people had lost their Idol - the Army its Chief .... and his intimate friends had lost the "Big Fella."

What an end for Michael Collins. Shot dead in an Ambush. Killed by his own Countrymen in his own Country - near his own home. Killed by the mean he fought and suffered with - the men he had been so proud of - and in the country he had loved to call his birthplace.

* * * * * * * * *

We reached the City. It was midnight, still, dark and silent - a fitting tribute to our little Procession. The thought struck me that those poor people had gone peacefully their nightly rest, all unconscious of the calamity that had befallen them. Some, perhaps, with cherished remembrance of the strong smiling face they had yesterday cheered in the streets.

To myself I thought, what an awakening tomorrow will bring - what bitter sorrow will overwhelm this poor city ere the sun has reached its zenith. Michael Collins was dead.

[signed] J Emmet Dalton, 23/11/22"

First-hand account of the death of Michael Collins (Part One)

My brother and I like to surprise each other with hitherto undiscovered family artifacts and memorabilia. I've written a little before about the extraordinary sailing by four young Irishmen in the summer 1950 of the 36-foot gaff-rigged yacht the Ituna from Dublin to New York. My father being a member of that crew, architecture students with none too much sailing experience between them. Skip back another Irish generation and there are also tales to tell. Both my grandfather and great-Uncle were intimately involved in the Irish War of Independence (1917-1921) and ensuing Civil War, and both served alongside Michael Collins, who famously outwitted the mighty British military intelligence machine and infamously died in a minor Civil War skirmish in the countryside near his home town in 1922.

Great Uncle Emmet Dalton, an experienced army officer who had fought for and been decorated by the British in the Great War, had become one of Collins' closest and most loyal military commanders, and it was he who accompanied the 'Big Fellow' on the tour of the south. This, and a number of first-hand accounts of the ambush, have been published in various books and websites. But I was amazed when my brother showed up with Emmet's own typewritten version of the events of that day, set down just three months later. The account is preceded by a handwritten note, which I am attaching. I know it's not strictly part of the remit of this blog, but I figure enough of you will have heard of the story or seen the biopic of Collins' life for it to have its own historical interest.

The cover note reads:

"The death of Micheal O'Coileain.

I dedicate this, my first little work to my youngest brother Pat, hoping that when he witnesses the improvements in Ireland's welfare, he will occasionally allow his mind to dwell upon the memory of my dearest friend.

J Emmet Dalton

23rd Nov. 1922"

The script that follows this reads:

"The war which had been forced on the people of Ireland by the Mutineers from the I.R.A. had been in progress for two months, and Cork had been captured by forces under my Command. We had been in occupation two weeks when upon the evening of the 20th of August I received an unexpected visit from General Michael Collins, Commander-in-Chief of the Army. He had been on a visit to General O'Duffy at Limerick, and, with an escort of three Officers, twelve men and a 'Whippet' armoured car, he had motored from Limerick to Cork. Most of the route he had taken was in occupation of bands of Irregulars and had not up to then been entered by Army Troops. He had two objects in visiting my Area, the first being to inspect the Military Organisation in the Area and to appreciate the difficulties of the Military problem with a view to giving his advice, and in order that he might more easily render the necessary assistance from General Headquarters, having seen for himself the position.

His second object was of a civil nature. In his capacity as Chairman of the Provisional Government, and Minister of Finance, he was anxious to make every effort to recover some of the thousands of pounds that had been extorted from Banks by the Irregulars prior to their retreat from the city. The stolen money was Excise duties belonging to the Customs and Excise Department, and it amounted to £120,000. They obtained the money by capturing the Official Collector, retaining him, and under threat of force, making him sign the cheques which, of course, the Banks honoured and paid.

Upon his arrival in Cork City at 8.30 P.M. on Sunday the 20th August, General Collins complimented himself and my Officers upon the success of our expedition. He then arranged interviews with his relatives and friends in the City. On the morning of the 21st, he, accompanied by me, inspected various Military Posts in the city, after which he interviewed several prominent citizens, including the Managers of the Various Banks, in connection with the stolen money. In the afternoon we motored to Macroom where he inspected the Garrison and the Military posts. Then, owing to the fact that the escort armoured car was not running satisfactorily we found it necessary to return to Cork.

He spent two hours in interviewing his friends in the city before retiring he arranged to devote the entire following day to a tour of inspection of the Command Area, as far as Bantry.

At 6.15 A.M. on the morning of the 22nd our little party left my Headquarters (The Imperial Hotel) to commence our tour. The convoy consisted of, and advance Motor Cyclist Scout Office, followed by a party of two Officers, eight riflemen and two machine gunners with one Leis Machine-gun, mounted on an open Crossley Tender. The next car was an eight-cylinder touring car with a light racing body, this car had two drivers in front, and in the back were General Collins and myself. Our first halt was Macroom, but because of the extraordinary amount of bridge destruction and road obstruction that had been participated in by our retreating enemy, it was necessary for us to take a round-about route, entailing much delay, consequently we made only a hasty inspection, picked up a guide and headed for Bandon. Here General Collins spent some time discussing the position with the officers of the Garrison before proceeding to Clonakilty. About three miles from Clonakilty we found the road blocked with felled trees. We spent about half an hour clearing the road under the guidance and instruction of, and with the assistance of, General Collins himself. He used a cross-cut saw and a heavy axe with tremendous energy and satisfactory results.

Having cleared the road we proceeded into the town of Clonakilty, which is the home town of General Collins. He interviewed the Garrison Officer and had conversations with many of his friends, all of whom were delighted to meet him. We had lunch in a friend's house in the town before setting out for Rosscarbery. About three miles from Clonakilty we halted at a hamlet in the vicinity of Sams Cross, which the home of the Collins'. Here the General was welcomed by his brother Sean and several of his cousins. We spent about a half an hour with these friends discussing domestic affairs, before we proceeded on our journey.

A peculiar circumstance of this journey was, that practically every relative the General had was encountered and spoken to.

Having reached Rosscarbery we consulted with the Officer in charge of the Garrison before proceeding to Skibbereen where again, in the ordinary Military way, General Collins consulted with the Garrison Officers, listening to their complaints, giving them advice and assuring them on the further co-operation from the Army Authorities.

Owing to the fact that it was now about 5 o'clock it was decided not to proceed to Bantry, but to return to Cork by the road which we had taken. We passed through the towns of Rosscarbery and Clonakilty, then to Bandon where we delayed for half an hour, whilst the General was conversing with several of his friends and two of his cousins who had just returned to the town with the Flying Column. One of the Officers who came from the locality remarked to the Commander-in-Chief that our escort was very small, and that the country we would pass through was much frequented by bands of Irregulars. His remark was greeted with a confident smile and General Collins said "Where you can go, we can also go." However, it was soon obvious (to me) that he had carefully noted the remark because he said to me when we were starting off "If we run into an ambush along the way we will stand and fight them." Just outside the town of Bandon he pointed out to me several farmhouses which he told me were used by the lads in the old days. He mentioned to me the home of one particular friend of his own, remarking "It is too bad he is on the other side now because he is a damned good soldier." Then he said "Don't suppose I will be ambushed in my own County."

I will add the concluding part of Emmet's account in the next instalment. The picture of the car is Emmet and Michael Collins at the back of the convoy.

The idea sees the light of day

Last week I plucked up courage to do what is one of those rites of passage that all those embarking on Doctoral studies must explore - talking about their ideas in public. The idea is that you look for a group of like-minded (and fellow suffering) peers and long suffering and sympathetic faculty and talk through your thinking.

At the start of the PhD no-one really expects you to have all the answers, or to have even identified all the gaps, let alone filled them, but they will be quite merciless if you have made any false assumptions or short-cuts. Quite right, too. If you're going to do this, the chances are (like me) you won't understand how to approach research and you need to get criticism that will put you in your place, and as long as it is well-meant, it is fine.

I was presenting at a quarterly colloquium of my school at Henley, the School of Management Learning and Knowledge and I have to say that just in the preparation for this I was able to make quite a number of connections for my own thinking. Of course, you are also explaining your research topic to yourself when you present in a public forum, and often what appeared to be crystal clear from the learned journal article you had read the previous week was altogether another thing when you have to describe what you think you thought they meant and how that fits into your own thinking.

I spoke in the end, with some discussion and questions, for about an hour, which was a pleasant surprise, and although I felt tongue-tied and tongue-twisted a couple of times, I think those attending not only got a sense of what my interest is and where it is based, but they seemed to be enjoying it, too.

e-newsletter for June

Dear all,

There are some events in the UK that are synonymous with the name of their location. Wimbledon, Ascot, Glastonbury and Notting Hill all come to mind as both places and experiences. In the social calendar it is now Henley’s turn - that time of the summer when the banks of the river Thames in front of the College fill up with moored (and very expensive) craft and the early mornings are punctuated by the hortative shouts to rowing crews from coaches on bicycles. Henley Regatta week.

When Shakespeare wrote “that which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet” he was right to detach the name from the thing it named. Nevertheless, it is noticeable how much meaning we do attach to words; it seems the human brain works best by co-creating meaning via associations. For any of you who have spent time here at the College the name Henley will bring to mind many different things. I suspect that a fair amount of that vast reservoir of connections are things held in common, shared and highly prized. What we all want is for a virtuous circle of reputation whereby the strength of the name encourages the best and brightest to apply, which strengthens the reputation, which… etc.

This means, therefore, that we need to be careful and clear when things are in a state of change, as they surely are at Henley at the moment, in order to protect what we value most. For me, Henley should always mean certain things, among them the insistence on balance between rigour and relevance in teaching and learning (and research), an environment conducive to reflection and personal growth, creation of insight via discussions with talented colleagues, and pride in the ability to act quickly (sometimes quirkily) and flexibly when needed. As the deadline for the merger gets closer, I’m sure we will all be reflecting on this and other things. As long as we remember how we got here, I’m trusting that we’ll still all attach the same meaning to Henley in the future.

Having said my piece, here are this month’s newsletter items.

Novation

You should have heard from the College by now, either via email or letter, of the need to ‘novate’ your terms and conditions from Henley Management College to the new legal entity of Henley Business School from the end of July. This is a necessity because the College will cease to exist from that time and in order to deliver your programme, and your degree, you will need to accept the new terms. This is a fairly simple exercise that involves you logging in to your e:assignment portal (the login is your student ID and whatever password you reset when you first logged in) and looking for this as a task in your intray. If you joined the College before the beginning of 2008, you will be asked also whether you wish to be presented with the current design (oak leaves) on your MBA diploma, or the new Reading-shield design.

(Pre)-newsletter?

This newsletter idea is catching. Lucy Carter, who is working as Brand Manager on the MBA here, is interested in developing a newsletter which she can circulate among those who are interested in applying to Henley. As part of this exercise, she is interested in hearing from anyone actually on the programme who would be willing to share their experiences. As Lucy writes, we’re looking for “a monthly/bi-monthly round-up of progress/challenges/activities that month - whether it was the programme itself with visits/workshops etc or whether it was work/personal/family based in relation to their studies - just to show that these are real people with real challenges all round.”

I know some of you write a blog (and if you’d like to link yours to mine, please let me know), so it might be a great way to broaden your audience.

Dissertation Corner

Tarek Dawas, a programme member on HB27 at Part Three, writes “I am currently looking for willing participants for my research project which is focused on identifying the cross-cultural critical success factors for the implementation of Talent Management systems in global organisations. I am ideally looking to interview project managers who have had experience implementing systems in multiple locations or globally to help me identify the cross-cultural critical success factors for these types of projects.”

I’m always willing to run adverts for anyone looking for people to help them with their MBA research, or from those who might have suitable dissertation-sized projects in search of someone to do the work. Professor Ghobadian has asked me to place a quick reminder of his research project, mentioned last month, the survey on how managers obtain, bundle and deploy tangible and intangible assets.

Keep in mind that the next Dissertation Clinic will be on September 17th at the College. Contact Susan Parr on for further details and booking.

PE Hub MBA Forum up-date

With thanks for Onat Atayer, who informed me after last month’s email that he was able to log in to the PE Hub MBA Forum with the password I provided using his regular email address, so no need for one that ends in ‘.edu’.

Welcome to our new Intakes

We had 36 new members joining us as part of HB38 recently. Nearly half that group is taking part in the International Stream, so we had a global starter. Joining them were 21 new members from Malta, and we expect between 45 – 50 new members in the Trinidad which kicks off in a day or two. We have an ambitious target for the next Henley-Based intake, HB39, in September, so I’d like to ask anyone who has a good contact in need of a good MBA to let us know.

LinkedIn

You might be interested to know that we are now only a few people below the 3,000 mark in members of the Henley group on LinkedIn. If you’re already connected, then I hope you are finding it useful, especially for research purposes. If not, then it’s fairly easy to register, and you can request a fast link from me. It would be great to get above 3,000 before the end of July.

Member’s Day July 5th

There’s an incredible, and record-breaking, 1,359 people currently signed up to attend this event, so even though some of those people are small children, it should be a packed day out (in all senses). Irina and her team have been working flat-out to prepare a full set of activities and (you won’t be surprised to hear me say) the grounds here are looking lovely.

In next month’s newsletter, I’ll be asking you to take part in the 2008 Annual Survey and I’ll hope to have a review of where we stand with the Home Straight Community. It will also be the last e-newsletter from Henley Management College, so I’ll try to think of some way of making it special.

Chris Dalton
Director of Studies

A strong week

It's been one of those weeks very full of many smaller things, like a mosaic. When I was programme leader, I rarely found myself at the end of the line in any process, though I had the good fortune to be at the start of several really exciting lines, such as the launch of a new intake (and there will be a new intake launching next Monday, so I'm really looking forward that). Now, as Director of Studies, it is often me that sits at the ends of lines. Some of these, too, are decidedly pleasant, such as the Graduation ceremony I have written about in another entry. Others are intriguing and challenging in a good way, such as creating the budgets for the forthcoming year, or reviewing case studies for future exams. Yet others are altogether more daunting, such as having to decide on tricky appeal cases, comment on even trickier plagiarism files, or (the worst) sign letters informing programme members that they have failed the course.

Thankfully, these are few and far between, but they are impactful nevertheless, both on me and the ones on the receiving end. This is all new territory for me, but is as much part of the function as the input on academic content, the recruitment of new members and myriad other day-to-day functions. So there are good days and bad days.

This morning I was able to attend the first session of a workshop on how to go about getting published in an academic journal. It was pretty useful and I understand a little better how it works, so the end result (a published paper in a reputable journal) no longer seems like a ridiculous idea. I have been developing and discussing some ideas around my PhD and it is taking some kind of shape, I think. Still a lot to do, though.

Threadbare

I have been sitting, sifting and sorting ideas and academic papers in self-imposed PhD isolation for nearly three days now. Studying this way is both exhilarating and frustrating.

I have been struggling to develop the thread for my PhD - the story that will connect the parts. There are plenty of ideas but unless I can find a way of organising them I may disappear (intellectually) under the sheer weight and varied merit of all possible input.

After a length of time spent in concentrated contemplation, the brain just does not switch off, even if you think it has. Last night, for example, after I thought I was done and was winding down the day with a glass of single malt, a thought appeared from nowhere. The trigger for the thought was a memory mined from my late teens. Up popped an image of me, aged 16, sitting in a pub in Walmer (the sleepier neighbour of the sleepy Kent seaside town of Deal) attending a branch monthly meeting of the Ecology Party. I hadn't thought of this short-lived political membership for many years, and its significance is not to reveal or revitalise a party political agenda. The eureka moment last night, and the significance of the recollection of this and other memories of my teenage activities centred around 'eco' and anti-nuclear causes, was a reconnection with a strong yet indistinct (and inarticulate) sense that all parts of the world were, are, inextricably inter-connected. So now I find myself returning to an interest in systems and wholes, not parts and pieces. From this a thread for my PhD is emerging (or, more exactly, it is re-emerging).

I already had a sense that if you are going to approach something from the point of view of a whole, you cannot easily do so by breaking it up. What has been added by my reading and thinking so far is a reductionist and overly analytical mindset cannot lead to a change in the way we think about how we think. I think we are seeing in our reactions to the very complex phenomena of global warming and our endless (sic) consumption of finite resources.

We are part of the ecology, not apart from it and despite all the progress that has been made in the scientific age of the last 200 years, we have yet to reach an understanding of management which values the aesthetic as well as rational and which acknowledges the invisible as well as the visible patterns. Few would argue that we are further away from a sustainable way of life now than we were 20 or 30 years ago, or that we have an even greater disconnect from each other, too.

My thread is one that will lend itself more easily to description than analysis. It will need to weave together a critical view of the history and current state of management education, a review of the literature from key domains, such as social & developmental psychology, learning theory, systems thinking and second order cybernetics, identity and self, complexity theory, and systemic family therapy. Should be fun!

On a simplified level, the thread that runs through is about grounding ourselves in the world.