April e-newsletter

Dear all,

Yesterday evening several of us went to central London for the MBA fair organised by AMBA. If you have ever been along to a fair, you will know they are somewhat bizarre (or perhaps just bazaar), a hotel ballroom with jumble-sale tables and the crazy presupposition that a manager will compare, select and even decide on which MBA to take on the basis of short 'visits' to the various schools in the room.

Whilst it is certainly true that Henley benefits primarily on word-of-mouth as its best form of recruitment (and with that in mind, I should plug the forthcoming June intake here!!) I find that MBA Fairs are good for two things:

1. they are an excellent tool for thinking about and then learning how to express succinctly what makes Henley distinctive. This is an often asked question. Frankly, it is best to have a Programme Member to hand to answer that from a learner's perspective (as we did yesterday - thank you Andrew Nagberi). My own answer revolves around four things - an Intake full of depth of experience and width of background, a practical, integrated curriculum that develops the ability to see and think strategically, an environment conducive to and focused only on management education, and an attention to your personal development that assumes you already hold the key to your own success. If I'm way off the mark, please let me know!

2. they are even better as places to listen to people like you, and actually that is why I enjoy them. Asking questions of the people who come up to the Henley stand is a great way to communicate to them that Henley expects people to take charge of their own learning. Or perhaps I'm just naturally curious.

Anyway, I would encourage you to think about coming along to an event some time. If nothing else, it will make you think about why you are on the MBA.

MBA Home Straight Community

As you may recall, in last month's newsletter I told you about a plan to launch a group within the DL MBA aimed at all those at Part Three who were behind schedule on completing their dissertation. We decided to call this the "Home Straight Community" and two experienced tutors, Richard Lacey and Mike Green, were appointed to co-ordinate.

The first community event took place at the College on April 21st and was very well attended. Richard and Mike spent some time focusing on many of the most common aspects of the process that people find difficult and also on where the best resources are, in particular the Dissertation area on the eLearning site, run by Ken Bull.

We also tried to allow space for those present (some 35 of you) to get into groups to share next steps. Interestingly, people naturally gravitated to groups that corresponded to four key phases along the dissertation route - a] not yet started, b] pre-proposal, c] post proposal, doing literature review, research methodology, and d] post lit review, doing or done the fieldwork.
A special blog has been set up at http://henleyhomestraight.blogspot.com/. It's private, so you won't see it unless you have been invited to register. All those attending have already been invited, and if you are in Intake 26 or lower and would like to follow and contribute, drop me an email.

Another opportunity to get involved with some research

You may recall in previous newsletters call from Mike Griffiths, an alumnus of the College for assistance with some really interesting research projects, several of which were useful for people in the dissertation phase of their MBA. Mike writes again:

"we are a small consulting firm called PDN based in the UK and US (since we last spoke we acquired another firm and our previous firm CSI has been rolled into this larger firm PDN) and have been invited to share our collective experience to an audience of 300 HR Directors on May 8-9th on the most pressing culture issues today and how you can maximize Human Resources' impact across the company.

I would be very grateful if you might put me in touch with current MBA students with strong investigative skills and an affinity for this subject who could work with me to collate the existing research available. There are four specific areas we have been asked to comment on:
1. Creating a cost cutting culture that doesn't kill morale
2. When leaders need to change culture. What is the leader's role in changing culture. How much does their personality and leadership style affect cultural change?
3. Creating cultures for growth - what are the cultures that are most predictive of growth?
4. Cultural issues in mergers and acquisitions Is there research that demonstrates that culture affects performance? Where are the most compelling examples of culture helping produce high performance?

The general theme is “What are the typical approaches to and models of culture diagnosis and change and how can they practically be applied by leaders, HR Dirs and their teams? And throughout all of these subjects we need to examine where HR has played an important part and what is HR's potential role in creating and changing culture in the future? It's very important for this audience that we not only provide practical tools and ideas but we have cases where things have worked and failed.

"If this is close to anyone's heart and they have time, I will happily pass on your details to Mike. I think there would be some excellent networking and mentoring opportunities in return.

The BBC's What Not To Wear

I know you are generally a dapper lot, but here's a chance to boost visibility your start-up business and learn a few sartorial tips:"The BBC's What Not to Wear is back for a new series and are currently looking for entrepreneurs who feel their appearance is holding their business back. Image is key when running a successful business, especially if you are the face of the company, get this wrong and it could have drastic affects on your turnover. We want to find 60 people who fall into this category and within those 60 two will go forward for a life changing makeover. We are aiming to find all 60 by the end of April - can you help?"Anyone interested in this can either let me know, or contact Janet Till at Henley

Personnel changes at the College

From time to time it is useful to let you know of some of the changes in key positions here at Henley. Our Dean, Jean-Noel Ezingeard, will be leaving in July and he will be replaced by Abby Ghobadian.

Several other faculty members to go include Trevor Long, Vic Dulewicz and Chris Head. We're all sad to see them leave, but I'm glad to say that many will return as Visiting Fellows. I'm also glad to say that the team administering your programme (Susan, Natalie and Charlotte) remains firmly in place!

Other changes include the departure of Phil O'Neil as Director of Operations. He is replaced by Nigel Francis.

We're looking forward now to May, which will include a fairly gregarious Intake 29 Part Three start and - of course - the Graduation ceremony on the 26th. It's also the month one begins to see more activity on the river in front of Greenlands, and you know that summer has arrived.

Chris Dalton
Programme Leader

"After all is said and done, more is said than done"

I have made mention in some previous posts that I participated in Henley's Virtual Tutor Course (VTC), a certificate which is a prior necessity for anyone active in Henley's virtual learning environment.

Part of the evaluation for this course is to summarise my own thoughts from my Learning Journal, a kind of blog-within-the-course, and Ithought I'd add those here to share.

In Henley workshops I go on so much about the value of sharing of experience that at the start of this course I was genuinely looking forward to experiencing interaction with live fellow learners. I wanted to place myself firmly in a student’s pair of shoes and push every button, pull every knob to get as much out of the experience as possible. If from nothing else, I thought I would learn from doing so. In short, I felt like a participant.

In experiential training, most debriefs revolve around three questions:
What went well?
What got in the way?
Do what differently next time?

Following this pattern now in my own summary, I was pleased to note hat I continued all the way through as a participant. I made time to visit the site very frequently, and that reading the contributions of others sometimes brought forward my own thinking, and occasionally revealed an insight.

The learning journal worked well for me. Reading others’ thoughts was a delight, and knowing that I had an audience for mine was a great help in constructing my entries to make sense.

A few things still feel like they were barriers. They include:

Most of my written contributions were ‘fired from the hip’. Unlike this one (Blogger) the VTC web-site had limited editing facilities and I did not choose to write something in draft elsewhere for revision before posting.

I had the feeling that others varied their input (and, sometimes, their output) over the life of the Course. Because so many of the tasks were simply collaborative activities within the sub-group, this was quite uncomfortable.

Attuning the two roles of participant and facilitator was also difficult, but not impossible. It was more of problem (for me) that every activity was a task.

I reflected more than once during the course on how so many distance learners fail only by failing to finish. A convert now to reflection, the only drawback has been the necessity to stop, or suspend, this in order to complete this assignment!

So finally, after the Virtual Tutor course has been said and done, I find that I want to draw some ‘doer’ conclusions that reflect how I would choose to behave as an e-facilitator (were I to do this again). These are:

Adapt what you know works in a training or classroom (or just with any face-to-face encounter) and apply it online. Good planning is essential

As facilitator, be comfortable enough with the technology of online learning for the learner to forget about it

All learning is blended learning. We need to employ all our senses, and the facilitator needs to tune into the unique way each person learns

Build in a mechanism to ‘tether’ the learner to the course so that they don’t drift away at the end

March e-newsletter

Dear All,

March has come and gone and I have failed to deliver my usual monthly newsletter in time. I ask that you overlook this, and I plead an agenda that had me out of the UK for much of the last two weeks. For the very curious, some inkling of where I have been can be found (along with this newsletter) on my blog.

So April may well bring you two newsletters for the price of one. It has certainly brought the promise of growth that lengthening spring and summer evenings tend to do, and the feeling here at Henley is one of green shoots after a winter of pruning. We are now into a real period of change, with launches of the new MBA curriculum for intakes in Denmark, Sweden, Finland and South Africa.

MBA Student of the Year Award 2007, sponsored by The Independent Newspaper

This award is organised by AMBA, of one Henley's accrediting bodies. "The Independent Student of the Year Award celebrates the impact that MBA study can have on the development of the individual. It also recognises the positive benefits that they can bring to their course, the welfare of their fellow students and the world beyond their business school. " If anyone is interested in nominations for this award, then there are three weeks left to do the paperwork. Details are available from Harle Shaw at AMBA on +44(0) 20 7246 2692 or email: h.shaw@mbaworld.com

Intake 25

On Friday March 30th a dozen members of Intake attended a special dinner at the College to mark the end of their scheduled study period. Of course, the way of things is that for many in that group studies may have come to more of a halt than an end, and as with previous get-togethers, this was an opportunity for some to re-energise their dissertation writing. Apropos of this topic...

On the Home Straight?

Those of you who are already there will know that the final part of the MBA is the hardest, and we have been looking fresh at what support mechanisms we can put in place to support you effectively once that scheduled dissertation due date has been passed without incident. We are pleased, then, now to announce the creation of a new community, called 'On the Home Straight", which will be run by two experienced tutors (Richard Lacey and Mike Green) and which will "organise events, co-ordinate communications and facilitate sharing" for programme members across all Intakes where people are at or beyond their schedules for part three. There will be a special 'kick-off' event at Henley on Sa April 21st in the afternoon, co-ordinated by Charlotte Ordish.

An invitation from Professor Jane McKenzie to attend will be sent out shortly to affected members in intakes up to 26. Naturally, if you have already submitted a dissertation proposal, you will continue to work with your appointed supervisor and this community support is in addition. Richard and Mike's work will, however, replace the Personal Tutor cover, which terminates at the end of your scheduled study period.

I should also add my usual plug for the dissertation clinics remaining this year:
Friday May 18th
Friday June 8th
Saturday September 15th
Thursday October 11th
Tuesday December 4th

Finally, for anyone looking to graduate in October 2007, bear in mind that your completed dissertation needs to be submitted by the end of this month.

Course Reps meeting

The next Course Representatives meeting is now set for Friday May 11th. If you would like to raise a cross-Intake issue or question, please let your course rep know this no later than April 26th.

Happy Easter

The team here wish you all a restful Easter break. According to my extensive desk research via Google, I find that about 10 kg of chocolate per person is consumed in the UK every year, and that we spend a weekly average of £1.33 on it. In fact, the average UK family spends more on chocolate in a year than a cocoa farmer earns in the same period. The UK chocolate market is worth around £3.9 billion, so I will be doing my bit by buying FairTrade products.

Chris Dalton, Programme Leader

Hardida!

Just returned from my second foreign assignment for Henley in as many weeks. This time, the privilege to run the first half of the Starter Workshop for the latest MBA intake in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The visit was pitifully short, really, lasting only three days. Enough to fly from the UK overnight, land, settle in and set up and then work for 1 and 1/2 days with the new group, some 80 managers from South Africa and beyond.

The focus was on self-awareness and team building and I have to say that they (and the staff and managers at Henley in South Africa) were a great group to work with - very demanding, for sure, but also very bright and very much determined to make the most of the opportunity.

I don't know what they will make of the three day workshop, but I am hopeful that they will do as asked, and reflect on their impressions by making entries in their online Learning Journal Entries. There was already a sense among some of those I spoke to that we had confounded their pre-workshop expectations (by this I mean we had met expectations they didn't even know they didn't have...).

Johannesburg I glimpsed only on the journeys with my delightful and patient driver, Jotham. One cannot tell all from such observations through glass, but it reminded me in scale of a city in North America and in wealth, too (poverty living side by side with wealth). This was my first visit to Africa and first time south of the Equator, so I am eager to spend a little more time there on my next trip over.

If you're wondering about the title of this post, it refers to a bird I saw there. The hardida is roughly the size of a duck and has a long curved beak that it spears into lawns to prize out insects. It also has a very loud and grating call!

That Was The Week That Was

It's coming to the end of the study trip to Budapest with the part-time Henley MBA group. It's been a very good programme of visits, presentations, activities and stories. Knowing the environment for so long (I do not say 'so well'), it is also interesting for me to reflect on what has changed and what has remained the same.

Of course, a lot of what I now see and experience in Budapest is another world when compared to the city I met first as a much younger man getting off the train from Vienna in March 1987. It was a place that seemed held back, where the wait for a phone line was sometimes measured in decades, the wait for a new car meant that your old car might be worth more that the one you had ordered, and when you went shopping, if you saw certain items, you bought them up! It was a place where superficial life was regulated by a system no-one trusted and no-one challenged, and life went on in a very European way underground. People relied on others to spread the word of the latest club or the location of the shop just opened that sold the goods just imported.

Now it is all very different. A regular European city, a little worn still, but just like its old self also.

We divided the week into time spent on visits to companies and organisations and time spent getting a broader perspective on life in Hungary (eating, drinking mainly, but also some culture). We began at the Central European University with an outstanding run-through of Hungarian history from Istvan Nagy. I remember meeting Istvan when he joined the MBA program in Budapest in 1993. A native of Transylvania, he now holds Hungarian citizenship and works as a top management consultant. I think we have grown grey around the temples together.

Among the companies we went to were an IBM HR shared service center, Videoton, a Hungarian-owned holding company for businesses in CEM and automotive parts, and Visteon, the struggling US automotive parts supplier. We also were guests at the Regional Environment Center (REC), which none of us could quite work out what it did. Finally, there was a small and rapidly growing contact center business called Photel, now part of Teleperformance. Photel was started by an old friend, Zsolt Lakatos, and managed by another, Odett Horvath. With the group packed into their one, small meeting room Odett gave an energetic presentation that outshone all others that week and won the hardened Henley MBAs! The other highlight of the week was, for me, the classical music concert at the magnificent (brand new) Palace of Arts building.

I do not feel the kind of nostalgia for Hungary that would call me back there. Mine is the kind that allows me to have many fond (and occasionally not so fond) memories that I like to relive when visiting. Seeing how much has changed, and knowing that I was one of the few western Europeans who lived there before all those changes, is enough.

World Wide Wait

Off next week for a week to Budapest with the Modular and evening MBA students as part of their international study trip. Budapest is where I spent 18 years from 1987 to 2005, so I am curious to see what has changed. I will try to blog whilst there.

I will be checking carefully also to monitor progress on the four international intakes recently started or about to start the MBA at Henley. As part of the Personal Development process, we are encouraging people to reflect in learning journals on thoughts and insights about their studies and their goals. It is very exciting to connect with members by reading their new posts, and I hope that we can get some energy going in the intakes and that those who are reluctant begin to see the benefits, not just of the power of writing for themselves but also of the feedback they receive from others.

Mind you, I'm learning a lot about the scope of the world wide web. Henley has students in Europe, where the IT infrastructure allows us to play with thoughts of 'synchronousity', in South Africa, New Zealand and Trinidad, the story is quite different.

Poetry on the bus

Hope you won't mind, but here is a link to another school's web site - a smattering of pride in having a poem accepted for publication and inclusion as a poster on a Brookes Bus during March.

And now for something completely different

Last week we launched the first intakes on Henley's revised MBA curriculum. Preparation for this event - a blend of new module content, new elearning environment and desire to create a distinctive and life-changing experience - has been the most stressful work project I have ever been involved with. Some colleagues, long in service at the College, told me that Henley has the knack of 'making things right on the night', and despite some worrying moments during January and February, so it proved.

The first Dynamics of Management workshop, for students in our Danish, Finnish and Swedish network, was innovative, thought-provoking and just the right mix of discussion, presentation and provocation of self-awareness.

It was not what many of those coming to the programme were expecting, although we knew that would be the case and in fact welcomed and relished the challenge to their preconceptions.

February e-newsletter

Hello all,
It's a short month, so a short newsletter.

New Intakes

This month saw the launch of both our 34th Intake on the DL MBA and the 2007 Full-Time MBA programme. Involved in the delivery of the opening day on both, I have been reflecting on how interesting new starts are, and how the College should be making the most of all that is going on inside your heads as you come into the MBA.

If you are in an intake that has heard me tell my 'mountain' story at the Starter Workshop, you'll know that I firmly believe it's our job to mess (in the nicest possible way) with whatever your view of the world is and challenge you - right from the word go - to challenge yourself, your assumptions, framework for making sense of the world and awareness of your own true potential. Management at senior level involves a lot more than just theory, and requires the capability to think critically and deal with multiple contradictions without losing the plot. It's not going to happen overnight, but it is exciting watching the first step.

Intake 34's first step began in mid February with 38 Members. The vital statistics of the new intake are an average age of 35 and average number of years of work experience of just under 14 (8 of which in managerial roles). The group is 70% male, has 11 nationalities (but is 68% British) and about 50% are self-sponsored.

Dissertation Clinics

At the other end of the production line, you may find it useful to note in your diaries the following dates for one-day dissertation clinics. These are ideal jump-starts for anyone post Part Three exam but pre dissertation proposal, especially if your registration clock is ticking noisily toward the end of your normal registration period.

Thursday March 15th
Friday May 18th
Friday June 8th
Saturday September 15th
Thursday October 11th
Tuesday December 4th

It seems getting back on track by booking yourself into a clinic is all the rage these days and while we cannot promise you will meet Britney Spears, we can make sure that you leave with a much clearer idea of how the dissertation process works and how it can be useful for you in your career. Contact your course administrator for more details.

Superbrand-a-fragilistic

A couple of accolades have come the College's way this month. The first was in a memo from Chris Bones; "Henley has been voted a 2007 Business Superbrand by an independent, voluntary council of experts and 1500 business professionals. From thousands of brands initially considered, survey participants assessed each entrant on their perception of its strength in the market, with particular reference to quality, reliability and distinction. The Business Superbrands supplement was published in the Sunday Telegraph on the 25 February."

I must admit I had to hunt a little on the Superbrands web site to find us, ranked at 168, but that actually equates to fourth on the list in Executive Education.

The other award was a Silver Medal in the category "Best UK Management Training Centre", voted by the Meetings and Incentive Travel magazine. These recognise and reward service excellence.If there was an award for "Best spot to reflect on the MBA", my vote would go to the area on bank of the tranquil river Thames next to the Henley boat house. I'd be very happy to hear other nominations.

Good luck to all of you planning to sit a Part One, Two or Three exam in March.

Read Me

This weekend we took some old friends who were staying the weekend out on a tour of the Oxfordshire countryside. We visited Blenheim Palace (getting in the free, but legal, way) and then went on to Great Tew, a lovely little village full of picture postcard thatched cottages and Porsche 911s.

After popping in to the pub to avoid the frequent rain showers, we walked back to the car. On the way I glanced into the village phone box and noticed a clear plastic bag containing paperback book propped up on the shelf. I thought someone must have left their book there by mistake, perhaps a freebie in one of the Sunday papers.

In fact, it had been left there deliberately, a fact that emerged when I picked it up, got it out and noticed a sticker on the cover; "Free Book - please read label inside cover and follow instructions".

The label inside told me that this book was traveling around the world making new friends. It went on to hope that it had made a new friend in me and directed me to a web site www.bookcrossing.com, where I could enter a code and find out where it had been, and - presumably - add something about what I thought of it and what I planned to do with it next.

Are there dozens, hundreds or thousands of books doing the rounds like this? I think it's intriguing and a great way to use the leveling of the world that the Internet can help create. in years gone by, people travelling on tight budgets would often leave books or pick up books left in far-flung parts of the world. I remember reading a Dornford Yates novel found in a youth hostel in Israel and passing it one to another back in the UK. But the World Wide Web adds a chance not just to enjoy a random book, but also to create a story about its journey. Great idea.

Haven't decided yet where this one will wash up for another person to discover.

Belbin rocks and roles

Henley has been looking back to look forward. The research into and publication of a new book called "Henley and the Unfinished Management Revolution" (I keep thinking this sounds like a synth-pop band from the 1980s), coupled with a whole set of changes in curriculum, faculty orientation and operational structure have meant we are now very conscious of the heritage of the past 60 years.

Yesterday part of that history visited us in the person of Professor Meredith Belbin, the 'father of team roles' (his own web site's description of him). Belbin is a man of huge standing. Literally as well as figuratively, as he is very tall. He was attending as a speaker at the launch of the Henley history book.

I wanted to see him in action, and I wasn't disappointed. He spoke quietly and without notes. He began recounting stories of the early years of experimentation with teams at Henley and as he got into his stride he became more and more professorial, placing both hands gripping high on his jacket lapels. With evident dynamism for his topic, he took us through his own development in thinking - paying frequent tribute to others, including family - on teamwork, the nature of work and job roles, ending on the evolution of human behaviour and the effect of that on modern organisations.

I know it's not new, but it was my first introduction to the use of colours to talk about assigning tasks and roles at work along the axes of a] task vs. responsibilities and b] individual vs. shared. The resulting 2 x 2 matrix has each cell coloured (Blue: structured work (individual tasks), Green: reactive work (shared tasks), Yellow; decision work (individual responsibilities), and Orange; collaborative work (shared responsibilities). The misallocation of work (and cause of much kerfuffle, I see) is represented by two more colours. Pink (imaginary work) for work performed and not needed [meetings, meetings!] and Black (the black hole of disownership) for work needed and not performed.

Meredith Belbin is now 81. The day before the Belbin talk, I was in the College restaurant dining with Intake 34 on their final workshop day. At a neighboring table there was a group of elderly people, also enjoying lunch. One of their number a man aged 85, appeared to slump to one side, and it emerged that he had suffered a stroke. We gathered round to assist and an ambulance was called and as we waited, tending, we learnt that he was a former professor at Henley, and had served as Assistant Principal at one time. It is the tragedy of life that the longer we live it, the more we are able to reflect on it and understand, yet the less of it remains for us to enjoy that wisdom and understanding. I sincerely hope to hear Dr Belbin speak here again.

Tune in, turn on, drop out?

Following an earlier post, one of the DL programme members came back to me with thoughts on why people drop out and don't complete their MBA.

The question raised went back to why students embark on an MBA in the first place. Is it because (a) they feel they ought to or (b) because they want to. The follow-on question was whether drop out rates are higher for those who were in the first category.

I don't know whether that is true, though it's an interesting thought. My own view is that you may well feel more motivated to get through the hard times on an MBA if you have paid for it yourself, or if you strongly believe you have chosen to be there. However, I don't think that is the whole story. I would be interested to see whether there are other factors at work and the extent to which someone is equipped with 'tools' to cope with the stresses and strains of study.

January e-newsletter

Hello all,

Two 'thank yous'

This month I'd like to start by thanking all of you who responded to my mid-month email drumming up leads and contacts for future DL intakes. You generated 22 names and they have all been passed on to the marketing and recruitment teams. I'll be hosting a DL information seminar here on the evening of January 31st and I hope that a few of those new names will also be able to make it along.

Staying on the recruitment theme, earlier in the week we attended the University of London Careers Service MBA Fair, in Islington, London . Henley had a good day and it was interesting to note how many managers came up and told us that someone they knew was studying or had studied at Henley and had recommended it.

Another thank you I must make is to those of you who have recently spent time being interviewed by journalists writing about one aspect or another of the MBA. In the last 12 months Henley has done very well in getting mentions and features in the UK media, and the best are those that feature students and alumni. A great example of this was the spotlight on Roman Stepantsev from Intake 33, who was featured in an MBA supplement in the Independent.

International study tour electives

I mentioned in the November newsletter that places were available on the Modular and Evening MBA international management visits in March. I failed to mention that in order to qualify for a place you need to be in Part Three, apologies. But the good news is that places are still open for Budapest, Cape Town and St Petersburg.

Remember that participation and assignment submission (unless you are studying for the Project Management MBA) counts as an elective - International Business Environment. If you'd like to know more, send me an email.

Call For more help and ideas

Since you are such a rich source, here are a few other requests - each aimed at enhancing some aspect of the MBA for others:

1. Although most people find a dissertation research topic and question from within their own organisation, there are always others who are looking for a new challenge, or require a different business problem. Do you have a topic, or does your company have a project, that would be ideal for another person to take on for their Dissertation? Let me know, and perhaps we can look at ways of matching - initially via this newsletter - people to projects.

2. As you know, we have an International Stream MBA, a group of Members who come for one-week chunks of workshops, and who are geographically very widely spread. To make their experience here more valuable, I have been discussing with the Subject Area Leaders how - beginning with the new intake in June - we might integrate a company visit with their workshop week. This, therefore, is a call for ideas on suitable companies within a reasonable (i.e. 30-40 radius) of Henley, where we could have access to senior management, some company data, and a great visit. Such a visit (I think more or less a whole day) would then be followed up in College and revisited during the year when the students come to studying the modules introduced. Please let me know if you have any ideas and I will follow up.

Dissertation clinic

The next Dissertation Clinic will be held on March 15th at the College. Clinics are an ideal way for you to become unstuck, if stuck is what you are, in your thoughts and actions regarding the Dissertation. They are most useful if you have not yet formulated a successful proposal. Contact your course administrator for more details.

Judge Florentino V Floro Jr in session

There have not been many posts made lately - my defence (mostly) being that I am still participating on the Virtual Tutor Course at Henley, and that contains its own Learning Journal - an internal blog - and most of my energy has gone into posting entries there. I doubt too many of those would make sense outside the context of the course, so I have not duplicated them here.

However, it is important to keep the momentum going, even if it purely for the habit and not for the having something interesting to say.

In one of those side-alleys that the Internet can lead you down, a reply to a post I had made on the Virtual Tutor Course (someone had referenced the expression "You don't have to be mad to work here...") led me to someone else's blog with a similarly named entry.

Here is the link: http://geeklawyer.org/blog/2006/07/28/you-dont-have-to-be-mad-to-work-here/

What you find there is a very strange, but apparently quite true, series of posts about a judge in the Philippines.

December e-newsletter

Dear all,

Last month I led with news of my collision with that deer on the way in to work. Several of you wrote back to report similar accidents, and one person shared some pictures from Greenland of having shot one. This feedback is added to various replies to the e-newsletter that I received during the year (all encouraging, I'm glad to say), so thank you.

Aside from it being very interesting to get reaction from you to the things I choose to write about, it is really fascinating to get a sense of the breadth and depth of the lives you all lead. If you are a typical Henley DL MBA programme member, this is your busiest decade so far - the one where you are really juggling many different adult roles, so it may be something of a miracle (what else, at this time of year?) that you are also taking yourselves on this learning and development journey.

This month's e-newsletter will contain only a few up-dates. There's a call to arms for recruiting the first Intake in 2007 and a special message from the Director of Studies, Professor Jane McKenzie. I'll preface that with Season's Greetings from the programme delivery team of myself, Susan Parr, Charlotte Ordish and Natalie Swadling as well, of course, as the team of Personal Tutors.

Intake 34

We would once again encourage you to think of contacts from your working lives who would benefit from the Henley MBA. You may simply wish to alert them to the programme, or you may want to ask us to get in touch with them directly. The College referral system means that if you give us a name and that person subsequently applies and is admitted, then you will receive a financial reward.

Professor McKenzie: Season’s Greetings to everyone!

"For many of us, this is the time of year when we take some time to enjoy the delights of friends and family, good food and some relaxation from the pressures of work. For Henley MBA students, unfortunately, I know it is often an opportunity to catch up with some studying too! Even though it was 23 years since I was working on my own MBA, I remember only too well, enjoying Christmas Day and Boxing Day and then going into seclusion until the New Year to write solidly for 10 hours a day just to finish my dissertation. It was hard to know everyone else was out enjoying themselves, while I had my nose to the grindstone. Yet, looking back I can honestly say, the returns now make the ‘pain’ then worthwhile. For me, the MBA opened the door to new opportunities in the job I was in and was the key to a career change and a flexible new lifestyle in a different country. Whatever stage you are in the MBA, I truly hope that all your hard work this year will bring the returns you are looking for in 2007.

As the year closes, my personal practice is to set aside a few hours to reflect on what I have achieved in the previous 12 months, and to think about what I might do better in the future. Try it! You’ll probably surprise yourself as to how much you have actually achieved in 2006, and how much you have learned. I find this exercise puts me in a positive frame of mind to think about the challenges for the coming year. For this I generally invest half a day to look forward, mind mapping the major commitments I have to fulfil, with some high level allocation of the time and resources I need to achieve them. I find that this process of capturing my intentions and capacities on one page, and linking them to what I have learned clears up any muddles in my mind and makes the demands seem more achievable. It also means I can keep both social, family and work priorities in mind, when deciding whether to take on any further commitments. Somehow I find this process reduces the dread that can be induced by a big workload and generates some excitement at the new horizons to explore. Year on year this simple activity builds into quite a documentary of your personal development journey. Even if you don’t fancy such a structured exercise, I would urge you to at least put all the workshop dates and key assignment deadlines in your diary and to make a New Year’s resolution to meet them all. If you have slipped against your schedule or are starting a new part with a different intake in 2007, do let us know if you need any further information to make your plans.

Two particularly important dates I am looking forward to in 2007 are the graduation ceremonies on 26th May and 27th October. I love celebrating with you the outcome of all your hard work. For anyone nearing completion, if you can your dissertations in urgently and we can get them marked quickly enough to go to the January Board of Studies, you might just make the May graduation. For those of you who don’t fancy my ‘strategy of seclusion’ in the Christmas period, then if you can get your dissertation in my April you could still graduate in October.

Whatever, your plans for 2007, I wish you every success with your studies. I’ll look forward to hearing the stories of your successes and challenges, either through your personal tutors, or from Chris and Sue, or by email."

Book Early for Workshops

Finally, I have been asked by the course administrators to appeal to you, when planning on attending workshops, to book early. This enables them to prepare the logistics and timings of your workshop more efficiently, and you all know that time spent here at the College is very precious.

Good news for non-smokers

From January, the College will be in compliance with new laws in England and Wales that will prohibit smoking in public spaces. There will be dsignated (outdoor) sheltered smoking areas in the College, but nowhere indoors. You will also be pleased to hear that new, lower tariffs will apply to accommodation in Paddock House from next year, when a single room will cost 65 pounds.

Ok, however you observe the end of the year, I look forward to seeing Intakes 28, 30, 32 and 33 at the College in January.

Tutors, tutors, everywhere

At the beginning of the week there was a two-day conference for tutors who will be involved in delivering the first stage of the new MBA curriculum from next year. It was an intensive and very useful event. Aside from the progress we made on many questions to do with programme delivery, management and design, I did notice two things:

1. Standing up in front of 102 tutors is a lot scarier prospect than talking to MBAs or managers. The way around this for me was to visualise the audience as MBAs.

2. For some reason, faculty enjoy asking questions on subjects that have nothing to do with them, thus often diverting the value of the session into an intellectual or procedural siding. :)

Am now looking forward to the Stage Two conference...

Licensed to coach

Passed my coaching assignment, and the course, and am now eligible to join the posh-sounding Henley Register of Coaches.

Feels good to have completed something, and also something that I got a lot out of in terms of learning new things.

Train of thought shunted

For some time now I have been mulling a question. Why do so many of those who start their studies via the distance learning mode not actually make it the whole distance and graduate?

Or perhaps the question could be, how does % that make it, make it?

Obviously, some don't make it because, despite trying, they fail to pass the minimum assessment criteria. But that is not actually a high number. One could argue that a lot of people fail to finish because of events in their lives outside their control. For some, this may be true, but don't the kinds of events most people experience in their 30s - births, deaths, moves, marriages, divorces, promotions and so on - happen equally as often to those who graduate as those who don't?

This leads me to speculate whether it is not the fact of things happening, but how people deal with them. That is not to say that the ecology of a person's situation isn't important, but it is also of their own making (largely), so I'm left with the question: what makes the difference between the MBA distance finisher and the drop-out?

This is only indirectly related to the Vrtual Tutor Course I am now a participant on. Well, perhaps I may discover that it is dirctly related, too. It is interesting to speculate whether tutors/facilitators can help people who would otherwise find themselves dropping out.

November e-Newsletter

Hello all,

The other morning I hit a deer while driving through the countryside to work. It really mucked up my day. According to Defra, there may are between 25 and 50,000 road traffic accidents involving deer each year in the UK. There are a lot of cars on the roads but since there are also apparently more deer roaming wild now than there were in medieval times, it is not at all surprising to find that accidents happen. Not surprising when they do, but still quite shocking.

If you will permit me to mangle an analogy, the distance learning MBA is bit like a long drive. You can plan your route, fuel your car, drive carefully and considerately, shout at the kids in the back, take rest breaks, but you also never know when something is going to step out in front of you and do some damage. Dealing, or not dealing, with the unexpected on the MBA is a major challenge and reinforces many of benefits of developing a strong support network within your intake. Keeping in touch with other Programme Members is probably the most effective way of maintaining motivation. Your Personal Tutor (your roadside assistance?) is another, and as reported in the last summer's annual questionnaire nearly 70% of you have used your personal tutor during your studies. In many cases, you may also be able to work with the College administration when things get tough. The worst thing to do, and the thing that feeds non-completion statistics, is to stay silent.

Here endeth the first lesson. This month's newsletter will have more news on assignment grades, an up-date on how the Optional Skills Workshop went, an appeal for more MBA interest in a project via Mike Griffith and news of a chance to join the Modular and Evening MBA students on the International Management Week study trips.

Henley-Based DL Assessment Statistics

Earlier in the year I shared with you the annual averages on grades for assignments and exams. Since figures are released at each of the quarterly Board of Examiners meetings, I thought I'd pass on the latest. It should make you feel better about your own progress by placing it in context.

In the third quarter of 2006, there were 163 Foundations of Management assignments marked. The mean grade was B-, and there were no fails. For Managing Information, there were 154 marked, mean mark was B and no fails. Managing People, 197 marked, B- and two fails. In the Part One exam, 167 people sat, the average mark was C and there were 6 fails. In the same period, 7 people resat this exam, and all of them passed, though the average was D+.

At Part Two, 142 Managing Marketing assignments were marked, with an average grade of B-, with one fail. 126 Managing Performance assignments produced an average mark of B, with again one fail. Managing Financial Resources had 141 assignments, average mark B and one fail. At the exam, the average from 130 people was C and four people failed. One person resat their Part Two exam, and passed. For the Project Management MBA, 13 sat the exam, two failed and the average grade was C. One Project Manager resat, and passed, their Part Two exam.

In Part Three, 138 ISPs were marked, average grade was B and none were failed. In the exam, 158 members sat, average grade was C+ and two failed. As for Dissertation, 138 were graded, average mark was B and four failed. The most popular elective in this period was Leadership, and of the 47 people who submitted the assignment, none failed. The average grade was B.

Optional Skills Workshop Weekend

We were able to run seven of the planned eight half-day sessions. I will be very interested to get the feedback from those who were there on both how effective individual sessions were, and also on the overall structure of using a weekend chunk in this way. Often the benefits of such events are not felt until some time later; things brought to light in a workshop suddenly begin to resonate in other areas of work or career, so I will be asking for thoughts in the New Year. One thing to know is whether this should be every six or every twelve months. A side benefit for many of those who were there was the chance to meet programme members from other Intakes, so I am keen to encourage this as well.

Appeal for help

Another opportunity has come up, via Mike Griffith, this time at short notice on behalf of a Senior Director in Cisco (Cisco is the global leader in internet network infrastructure and services) responsible for their Strategic Consulting Emerging Markets division. She needs someone to help research the critical success factors around transforming emerging countries in particular how telecommunications are enabling their unprecedented growth for one of the largest telecommunications conferences of the year ITU 3G World Congress and Mobility Marketplace Dec 4-7th in Hong KongShe has asked for help from an MBA student to help synthesise the key insights from research. She would then be very happy to work directly with them in helping preparing key messages in her speech at this conference. Assuming the work was of a high quality she would be very happy to provide a testimonial. Ideally she is looking for someone who has understands the issues and opportunities around the growth of emerging economies and has some experience in growing those markets through telecommunications. This is a great opportunity to effectively consult to a Senior Director at Cisco. If you are interested, please contact Mike

International Management Week

Places are available for DL and students on the Modular and Evening MBA international management visits in March 2007 to Budapest, Cape Town, Hong Kong and St Petersburg. These will be allocated on a 'first come, first served' basis (currently with fewest places available for Hong Kong).

Participation and assignment submission (with the exception of Project Management MBA) counts as an elective (International Business Environment), so is a great way of gaining experience and progression.

The aim of the study visit is to maximise the learning about:· The international business environment in general and secondly and more importantly,· The interface between the organisations visited and the national business environment they work inThe one week visit forms the foundation for this elective. While you are away you will participate in a variety of company visits and lectures by local faculty and managers. The companies to be visited have been chosen to provide a strategic window through which these two facets of the operating environment can be explored. The relevant environmental features that are being addressed include politics and economics; social, technological, legal, environmental and cultural factors and industry competition issues.

Detailed timetables for each destination will be available much nearer the time of departure, but if you would like to know more, please contact Marcia Doughty directly. Please note the charges are as follows: Budapest - £1600, St Petersburg - £1700, Cape Town & Hong Kong - £1900 and students also have to arrange their own flights and visas (if necessary).

I know from past experience of hosting the Budapest trips that they are intensive and very rewarding. I hope to be accompanying the group to Budapest and it would be great to have involvement from DL MBAs.

Virtually Challenged

I am now into week two of the Henley Virtual Tutor Certificate course. I am one of about a dozen participants, several of whom are colleagues at Henley, so we have the slightly odd sensation of being on an online course, but sitting together at lunch...

It's already been quite an interesting experience. It's much more difficult to be active with a group of people that you don't really meet face to face, at the same time as managing your own reading and reflection of the material, at the same time as keeping to the deadlines of study, at the same time as working full time... I could go on.

The Wiki is going along. Only one other member has actually posted/edited anything, so that is quite interesting. There's no way of telling if any of the others currently eligible to take part have actually spent time on the site. Nevertheless, it is beginning to take shape, and part of its shape is based on comments of others.

This past weekend also was the Optional Skills Weekend for Distance Learning MBAs, with half-day workshops on various topics, such as Consultancy Skills, Resume Writing, Research Methods and NLP. It was quite well attended and I am keen to build on it, and tailor it to student needs more. I ran the Resume Writing session, and was aware that the Henley Coaching course was having an influence; rather than focus on the typical 'dos and don'ts' of CV, I was encouraging people to work on their career goals, research their intended reader and then start writing.