February e-newsletter

Dear all,

It would be fanciful to suggest that this year February has inserted an extra day just to allow me to catch up on the volume of emails, calls, meetings and workshops that have filled the month to bursting point. It would probably also hint at megalomania, too, so I won't pursue it, but nevertheless it has been a hectic time. Eight different intakes have had workshops at the College this month, four of them participating in Starter Workshops and (we hope) enjoying the buzz of the leap (no pun intended this month) into the unknown.

A fairly succinct newsletter this month...

Henley on Linkedin

I haven't up-dated you for a while on how this group is emerging and how many are enrolled. Currently, I see that there are 2,716 people who have signed up. When you think that these are all people, like you, with a strong link and emotional tie to Henley, and also a deep well of information, contacts and experience for you in your career (or you in theirs), then it starts to make sense.

For any of you who have lost the link, or are new to the programme, you can request a sign-in for this by clicking on this link [link removed for the blog]

You may need to set up a LinkedIn account as part of the process, and may be blocked if you have previously registered using your email address but have forgotten all about it or can't remember your password (it happens...), in which case you will need to email the support staff at Linkedin. You may receive a 'request pending' message, which means someone is checking your application this end. You're much more likely to get through that if you have listed Henley in your profile already.

Home Straight Community

Richard and Mike would like to announce to all those in the Community that the next event will be held at the College in May, on Sunday May 18th. This will run from about 10 to 3.30 and will include sessions on managing the supervisor relationship and how to conduct online research for your Dissertation. We will also be asking some people who have recently finished to share with us their strategies and tactics.

In the meantime, there is the Blog. A number of people have recently asked me for access to this, and it would be good to see some postings. Typically, members have been writing about how they are feeling at the various stages of writing, reading and conducting research. It's a great place to share tips on what approaches have worked.

I'm grateful to Richard Lacey also for passing on to me a link to an article in the New Scientist which cites a member from HB24, David Mulligan, talking about his Henley MBA. Linkedin has a facility to search for stories of interest to you, as does Google News, so please let me know if there are other mentions of Henley DL MBAs around the world.

Dissertation Clinic

11th March is the date for the next Dissertation Clinic at Henley. Marcia Doughty is the co-ordinator for this, so if you are in the early stages of working through your ideas and would like to get some direction and advice, please contact her for details.

By the way, if you have a topic in your organisation that would be suitable as a Dissertation subject for another programme member, please let me know and I will gladly publicise it here.
New Intakes

As I mentioned above, February saw the launch of the latest Henley-based intake, HB37. We are very pleased that we beat our target for recruitment on this one, with more than 60 new members experiencing Henley for the first time. This week we have also welcomed new groups from Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Greenland. Next month we expect new Intakes in South Africa and New Zealand to come on board as well.

A couple of opportunities to get involved

1. I have received an email from a team of MBAs at ESMT (an exec MBA school in Germany) who say "Currently we are running a project in conjunction with esmt and supported by a global corporation. The focus of our project is the issue of employer branding. We would like to have a better understanding of the factors influencing employees and their perceptions when choosing an employer. Therefore we created a survey which takes about 10 minutes to complete. After completing the survey, your students have the chance to win in a raffle of prizes. Survey Link: [removed for blog posting]"

Aside from any intrinsic interest you might have in the subject, it's always useful for you as MBAs yourselves to look at approaches others are taking to research.

2. AMBA Student of the Year competition 2008. Each year the Association of MBAs and the Independent organises a competition to find the MBA Student of the Year. Business Schools are allowed to nominate one student and whilst AMBA doesn't dictate, or even indicate, what process the school should use to make that selection, it does seem logical that they should be a willing volunteer. Criteria used by AMBA for judging can include:

• Most valuable contribution to programme development (giving feedback/constructive comment)
• Contribution to group dynamics/leading group discussion and inciting debate/good overall team player
• Strong academic record of achievement
• Commitment to the future development of the business school and the MBA - devoted to enhancing the value/worth of the MBA in the market and business education in general
• Good school representative/ambassador (e.g. staff/student liaison)
• Taking on a challenge in the face of adversity/overcoming challenges during study
• Most improved/benefited from the MBA in terms of own career progression
• Contribution to international dimension of course/assisting with integration of overseas students or playing a mentoring role.
• Good all-round player (sports/study/social)
• Maintaining morale
If you would like to know more, please go here http://schools.mbaworld.com/downloads/cms/SOTY_emailable_PDF.pdf and if you think you have what it takes, please let me know. The competition, which is open to Distance Learners, requires us to nominate by April 14th 2008.

Important reminder for anyone at Part Two

As you will all know, Henley is in the process of rolling out its new MBA curriculum. For a time, this will mean that we are working on two versions in parallel. One of the more difficult aspects of this to manage are the scheduling of exams. We need to be both fair to those of you who have experienced some delays in your study and are behind your original schedule, and also clear in communicating early what your ultimate deadlines are. For the Part Two exam (which examines Managing Marketing, Managing Performance and Managing Financial Resources) the last chances to sit this exam for the first time will be September and December this year. March 2009 will be the last opportunity to resit, should that be necessary. The College will also be writing to you individually in March about this and other details for completing Part Two.

So, though not intended just for me, I remain grateful for the extra day to write this newsletter.

Good luck to anyone who is in full flow for their exam in March. In next month's email I will be trying to give you an up-date on the progress toward the proposed merger.

Chris Dalton