e-Newsletter for May

Dear all,

They're packing away the giant marquee on the main lawn in front of the building. Given the downpours over the Bank Holiday weekend, we were really lucky with the weather at Saturday's graduation. The mix of sunshine and cloud was just about perfect for a Graduation - not too cold to be out on the lawn and not too hot to be dressed in cap and gown for several hours. It was my first ceremony where I got to read out the names, which was not as nerve-wracking as I thought it would be, and provided a really welcome sense of ownership and closure of the MBA programme.

One of the speakers remarked that the Henley MBA was not, should not be, an easy degree to get. I think just about all of you will agree with that, even if what is creating difficulty is not obviously part of the curriculum or mode of study. But I doubt anyone chooses Henley just to get the three letters (though don't knock it!). That's not to say that it's always clear at the beginning. I think the meaning of the Henley MBA emerges with and for you over time. Happily, our new curriculum helps you capture all of that via reflection and personal development, so it will be interesting to see how those of you in the new curriculum progress as compared to the old.

There's a lot to pack in to this newsletter, beginning with:

Results from the Board of Examiners

This is an occasional look at the sets of results presented to the Board, which has the task of passing the previous three months' grades for assignments, dissertations and exams, as well as any interim or final awards. It is sometimes queried why we have such a long hiatus between examination and result, but this masks the amount of checking and double-checking by marker, moderator, administrator and external examiner. I think it is an indication of how seriously we all take the assessment process, though I can also remember the endless wait for the grade (and this was back in the pre-online days when Henley wrote you a letter).

I'll outline the main pieces of assessment considered at the April Board of Examiners. Bear in mind that we are currently moving from one version of the MBA curriculum to another, so I will run through the older version first.

At Part One, only one Foundations of Management was marked in this time, and it passed. There were 11 Managing People and 18 Managing Information assignments. Two People assignments failed. The average mark on Managing People was C-. The average on Information was B+. One person sat, and failed, the Part One exam. Six re-sat this exam, of whom four passed. At Part Two, 98 Managing Marketing assignments were marked, with two fails. The average grade was B. 86 Managing Performance scripts produced no fails and an average of B, whilst in Managing Financial Resources there were 106 assignments, a B- average, and 3 fails. 88 people sat or re-sat the Part Two exam (plus another 8 in project management). The average overall grade for first-timers was C, and D for re-sits.

At Part Three, 223 Integrated Strategy Projects were submitted, with only 3 fails. The average grade achieved for ISP was B-. A lot of you sat the Part Three exam this time round (394!). All but 11 passed, and the average grade was C+. Of the 207 Dissertations submitted, 14 were failed by the Board. The average grade was B-.

In the new curriculum (Programme 5), 123 Dynamics of Management assignments were marked, with 7 fails. The average grade was C+. There were 126 Managing People and Performance/Managing Processes, Systems and Projects (quite a mouthful) integrated assignments, of which only one failed and the average passing grade was B-. Another 14 Project Management integrated assignments were marked, with no fails, and the same B- average. 111 Managing Financial Resources scripts produced 11 fails and an average of C+. At Stage One, exam one, there were 108 people, of whim 94 passed with an average grade of C-. 110 Stage One Personal Development Review and Plans were submitted, and all passed.

Home Straight

With graduation ringing in our ears, it is timely to reflect on the Home Straight Community. Richard Lacey noted that 29 of the 48 Henley-Based graduands in the afternoon ceremony had been actively engaged in the HSC. The event run at the College on May 18th was very successful, with interesting sessions on use of the Learning Resource Centre (e-Library) for research, and tips on managing your supervisor. The next event will be some time in the autumn. Its' all gone very quiet on the Home Straight Blog, though, with no new entries since April. If you're past your Dissertation Due date and would like access to this, a space to share experiences and tips, then email me.

Researcher's Corner

There are several requests and enquiries about research this month. These are opportunities for you to participate or help with other people's research. Sometimes these are faculty members, other times fellow Programme Members.

1. A colleague is looking to run 20-30 minute telephone interviews with managers responsible for making the property decisions in their company - the research is for the Investment Property Forum and is looking at the extent to which occupiers consider sustainability issues when deciding to buy or lease offices. Please email me if you know the name of the person in your organisation who deals with real estate issues (especially if it is you!).

2. David James reports that "O2 have a potential MBA Dissertation opportunity, exploring churn data and tipping points that actually looks really sexy and great fun." Anyone who would like to know more can contact him directly.

3. Professor Abby Ghobadian writes: "Prior research shows that the processes by which resources are managed (e.g., how managers obtain, bundle and deploy tangible and intangible assets) have major effects on firm’s performance. This survey is designed to enrich our understanding of how different approaches to these processes work together to create value for the firm. Additionally, we seek to understand how other factors affect resource management processes. For example, how does the firm’s risk preferences and availability of slack affect resource management? Or how does the competitive context (external factors) influence the efficacy of these processes? Or how different functional managers approach resource management? To find answers to these important questions relevant to the practice of management we are conducting an international study in the USA, China, and countries where Henley has alumina.

I very much hope that you will support this important research by completing this survey. Based on the results of pilot studies, this survey should require approximately 12-15 minutes to complete."

This one is also featured in the Alumni newsletter, which some of you will also receive. I assured Abby that no-one would fill it out twice...

4. Researcher Mollie Dickenson writes: "We've had an enquiry to do a small piece of research for a packaging company called Sonoco = in store displays. They've got some market research data which needs sorting, organising and following up with tel calls to produce a matrix/report (by the summer) of the companies analysed against a set of criteria, for them to consider in terms of making acquisitions. Small budget on offer. Do you know anyone who might be interested to do this?" For more details, contact Mollie.

5. Finally, our business development team have received some requests from potential applicants who are interested in speaking with current programme members who "initially struggled with the programme and then overcame these issues." Quite possibly that is all of you - but if you'd be willing to chat via email with candidates about your own experiences, please let Fiona Smith know.

Dissertation Clinic

The next Clinic is coming soon, set for June 6th, and is being organised by Kim Harris. For those who don't know, the Clinic is a day where you can get a refresher session on what the Dissertation is all about, followed by short one-to-ones with faculty members. It's really for those who do not yet have a supervisor assigned. Also, I should add that wherever possible we try to allocate time for tutors visiting in the Associate Network locations to run similar sessions. I ran one in South Africa and it was exhausting and uplifting in equal measure - a kind of Brief Academic Therapy session.

Reading Merger

You should all be receiving regular up-dates on the merger, either via newsletters or on the elearning area for your intake. Up-dates are also posted to our main web site. If you do not, please let me know and I'll see how we can let you know the latest. You're probably wondering what's changing here internally and the answer is still, 'not a lot.' We're all focused on business as usual for the MBA (and we're expecting to welcome new intakes in June - Henley-Based HB38 and Malta MT01 and Trinidad TR03). The date for the newly merged Business School to come into existence is August 1st, and we'll be seeing out the College in style with celebrations (probably with a melancholic tinge) on July 31st.

PE Hub, MBA Forum Good news....bad news

Way back in January I was asked by some of you to approach a website called PEHub.com to organise access in the MBA Forum. You'll be glad to hear that, in mid May, I got a positive reply and an access code: upperwest. However, this is an American site, with an American mentality, and it turns out that you also need an email address which ends in .edu to join. If anyone has any suggestions, I'll listen.

Family Day

I'm looking out of my window here at Henley and it is raining, but I'm sure it will have stopped by the time we get round to the Family Day on Saturday July 5th, so here's your monthly reminder to book early for the cream teas.

Finally, good luck to anyone who is going to sit an examination next week!

Chris Dalton
Director of Studies

The Graduates

It's been a hectic two days at the College, rounding off a fairly frantic week. On Friday we had a day-long series of meetings with the International Network, whereby the managers from the associate partners and subsidiary offices spread across the world come to Henley. They come in part for the graduation, and in part to catch up with the formal news and informal gossip from the preceding six months.

In my parallel-universe-Henley, this event is run along the lines of a mafia convention. The real-world reality is somewhat more mundane, but is still imbued with a whiff of 'Sopranos' family tension in that the associates operate and deliver the Henley MBA in a very diverse set of markets, and it would be fruitless to believe that a one-size fits all mentality will work. This leads to some interesting debates.

The one thing that unites them all is the same emotional attachment to Henley as an institution that I have alluded to in previous posts, especially those which refer to the Graduation ceremony. For me, 2008 marks a new chapter in that at today's Graduation it was my name in the printed programme indicated to read out the names. This fact, exacerbated by the tongue-twisting complexity of some of the names of those collecting their diplomas, has had me in in a nervous funk all week. But that angst was wiped clean the moment I stood up to ask the Principal to admit the graduands named in the programme to the College. Only 8 years ago, it had been me lining up to have my name read out, my hand shaken and my picture taken on the stage. Now I was running that programme. I have to admit; I felt very honoured, and very pleased for every one of the new MBAs. For now, I wear the same green gown as they do, and that is another source of pride. I hope that, eventually, I will don (pun probably intended) the robes of my own PhD.

It's called Terminal for a reason

Here I am in Terminal 5 at Heathrow. I was here yesterday afternoon and evening too, thinking (foolishly) that I had beaten the curse of BA by having no bags to check in. I am trying to fly to Budapest.

Everything went well yesterday until about an hour before boarding, when a delay was signalled. OK, not too serious, and a gate allocation duly appeared, and we all duly appeared at the gate. To wait. And wait. About 50 minutes after the new departure time, with no boarding and no announcements, the sign went blank and then blinked "Gate Closed". The five members of BA staff at the gate clearly did not have the full picture of what was happening. Terminal 5 is not short of BA staff, as I found out on my depressing journey back through the arrivals area after (finally) the cancellation of the flight was announced. They pretty much lined our route, handing out bottles of water (a la London marathon drink-stations) and leaflets telling us that BA were unable to arrange any hotel accommodation. The reason for not being able to set people up with hotels was basically that London is full of people watching Wimbledon (that's what it said!). The silver lining in this cloud was the BA staff member on the customer service desk, who was polite, empathic and able to book me on to flights the next day. I've been up-graded, too, which means instead of paying £1 for 10 minutes to surf the net outside the omnipresent Starbucks, I am in the BA private lounge watching the departures board - which is now showing my re-booked flight as delayed!

At least I can do some reflection. And reading (I'm reading "Mind & Nature: a necessary unity" by Gregory Bateson, which will be worth several Blog postings in its own right. And surfing, of course - I'm now fully up to date with all my Scrabulous matches and I've seen my book jump in the Lulu rankings from 99,326 to 44, 885 (a seismic move that even Henley would envy). Not bad what 8 copies sold can do for an author.

The Reading away game

We had our first faculty-to-faculty meeting with soon-to-be-colleagues at the University of Reading this week. In preparation, I had a quick look at the Wikipedia entry for UoR. I found a several interesting facts, and here is my top 10. See if you can work out which ones may have played a part in the merger:

1. The Whiteknights campus name was taken from the nickname of John de Erliegh IV, a 13th century knight
2. UoR was founded in 1892 as an extension of Christchurch College, University of Oxford
3. They attained Royal charter in 1926, the only new university created in the UK between the World Wars
4. It is one of the ten most research-intensive universities in the UK, as well as being considered one of the top 200 universities in the world.
5. It is one of the highest financially endowed Universities in the UK, at 9th position in the most recent table
6. In -2006, UoR closed its Physics Department, which caused a bit of controversy at the time, and even led to questions being asked in the Houses of Parliament!
7. The Chancellor of UoR is John Madejski
8. The University library has over 1 million books
9. UoR has a world-class reputation in research in a number of areas, including archaeology, psychology, English and climate change
10. The University announced in 2007 plans to spend 250 million GBP on its estates

[Funnily enough, the Henley Management College Wikipedia entry has already changed to read Henley Business School at the University of Reading, which somehow feels a little premature.]

The meeting and evening meal with the Reading faculty went on at several levels, as all communication does. I'm glad to say that it went pretty well on the person level, the personal level. It turns out that there's a lot of respect at UoR for the Henley reputation and I think, as we discussed how we see ourselves, that they formed an impression of us as being focused on practical application and on the customer. There was an acknowledgement that there may be a lot for them to learn from our approach (and a hunch that it won't be easy).

For our part, I think we gained a sense of their expertise and of their commitment and belief in research, and there was a hint of their 'maverick' attitude to authority. One thing they weren't expecting (apart, I suspect, from all of us being there ready to start the meeting on time...) was our sense of sadness at the change in status. I have to add that we have other feelings, too, such as excitement and anticipation.

Anyway, we're waiting now to see what the details will be about the new structure of the Business School from August. Before then, of course, there will be more meetings like this one. The next will be the return fixture at the College on May 21st.

Mornington Crescent

We all have voices in our heads. I don't mean just our own, though that's a voice, too. I mean that some people by dint of tone, use of language and principles they live by have a recurring influence on how we think. In the mind's eye they can be conjured up to talk to us, even when they are no longer around. Last week the jazz musician Humphrey Lyttleton died at the age of 86, and his was one of the voices in my head.


His death was big news here among a large but particular section of British society. For many, it wasn't so much as a musician that he was being mourned, though he was a very talented player and band leader. 'Humph' also had a long career as host of a brilliantly witty radio programme called "I'm Sorry I haven't a Clue", the self-styled 'antidote to quiz shows'. Humphrey was the wry, dry and double-entendre (ring)master overseeing two teams of equally witty comedians. The show was a series of activities and radio party-games that were irreverent, playful and often had a ridiculous take on the language and habits of the British.


One of the most surreal parts of the show was a game called 'Mornington Crescent'. The rules of Mornington Crescent were never explained, though they were often obliquely alluded to. The game appeared to be simply a sequence of to-and-fro namings of London streets and underground stations. The game was won when one team managed to outwit the other by somehow navigating to the last stop, always Mornington Crescent; the place in question being a part-time tube stop on the Charing Cross branch of the Northern Line.


I loved this game at first because it seemed to be played with absolute authority and adherence to a set of esoteric rules. I suspect I was not alone in that for a long while I actually thought it to be a real game with real origins, and I've no doubt you can Google for both. But your belief will be false and your search will be in vain, for the beauty of Mornington Crescent is the fantasy that it is real.

I love Mornington Crescent precisely because it illustrates the way that meaning is ascribed to something not by it being 'true' in any objective, factual and empirical way, but via the space created by the idea of its existence. You can be in on it either by believing it, or by not believing it - it's just as much fun whichever way.

I suppose this is partly on my mind now because of the voice that introduced it and and partly because I am reading around systems theory at the moment. With that in mind, of particular interest are the ideas of the anthropologist and social scientist Gregory Bateson.

Buy my book.... now!

Apparently, publishing used to be a pretty direct business. Somebody set about writing something themselves, or caused something to be written, and went either to talk to a publisher or published it themselves. Only from the late 1800s, with the arrival of the literary agent and the explosion of mass production in books, did it become either too labyrinthine or unacceptable as vanity for a writer to publish simply through their own efforts.

I grew up in a house surrounded by books. But I read very little and was untouched by them; I felt that they had nothing to offer. I eventually did start to read only in my late teens and, since arriving in their world, I haven't looked back.

Often what affected me every bit as much as the content (the language and the words that transported me away from myself) was the tactile fact and temporal permanence of the book as an object, especially when also a possession. The construction, the look, feel and smell of a book were an integral part of reading and my newly discovered world of books was one bound by loyalties not only to certain writers but also to certain publishers.

Technology has put paid to many things, but not - one trusts - the human need to tell stories, and thankfully not also to the equally human need to hear and read them. With this in mind, and in the context of an almost instantaneous World of connections, I have decided to behave as a very modern author to return to the days when an author published directly.

All of this may simply be a long-winded introduction to a short-lived project, or hobby, which is my own book of fiction.

The work in question is a collection; a novella, short stories and poems, and is my small contribution to the imaginations of others. So, you read it here first! "The Messenger's Falling" is now available from Lulu.com and, when I work out how to do it, from all good virtual bookshops such as Amazon.co.uk, as well.

April e-newsletter

Dear all,

Henley is a great place for contemplation, if you can find the time, and this month I have been thinking a lot about systemics. As any fule kno', (and to quote Wikipedia) "systemics is an emerging branch of science that studies holistic systems". None the wiser? Well, read on...

My current interest comes from the reading I am doing for my PhD, where a focus at the moment is on looking at Critical Reflection in management education/development using approaches from multisystemic family therapy. One of the side-effects of that is not only do I see complex systems everywhere, I am able to make and internalise connections that just weren't there before.

I think this highlights a phenomenon that, extrapolating from entries many of you are making in your online Learning Journals, could be common to everyone studying for their MBA via distance learning, namely (and as a direct result of the MBA) the creation of new patterns of of thinking. Not just knowing more stuff, but actually having the mental language to think in another way. It's a subtle distinction, but one that marks the difference between a 'tick-the-box', lego-brick MBA and one that gives you more choices and which places you more in tune with your environment.

That's another, and rather long-winded, way of saying how much I am enjoying the interaction with you all, either via your online learning journals, or emails, or meetings here at the College. Keep it up!

Home Straight Community up-date

Let's begin with a quick reminder to all of you who are studying at Part Three via a Henley-Based intake, and are beyond your scheduled Dissertation due date - Mike Green and Richard Lacey are preparing their next meeting here at Greenlands, on Sunday May 18th. Charlotte Ordish is organising the workshop, which will include sessions on the differences between qualitative and quantitative research, managing your Supervisor and tips and hints from those who have finished their projects recently.

For those of you studying via one of the Henley Associate Network locations, please keep in touch with your local administrator for any forthcoming dissertation events.

Back in the UK, the next Dissertation Clinic is on June 6th, and is being organised by Kim Harris, who can be contacted for details.

Possible Dissertation Topic

Once again, I am thankful to Christine van Winkelen, who has forwarded me this opportunity. Christine writes:

"I do feel that one of our other projects would also lend itself to being a great opportunity for a student to produce a dissertation. It involves a new perspective on social network analysis and there are some great companies involved in it (the Global Chief Knowledge Officer of Vodafone is co-leading the project with us). If you have any other students who are looking for a project and can fulfil the criteria below, then please do put them in touch with me urgently."

Reading Merger Up-date

You may already have heard this by now, but just to confirm that the Henley Management College Court of Governors met for the second time on April 23rd and ratified their decision to support the merger. After Reading have met in early May to do the same, the process moves up a gear and begins to take on a very much more operational tone. The College will continue to provide fortnightly up-dates, which I won't repeat here.

In fact, I've been fairly quiet on the whole subject and the main reason is that it just hasn't affected the day-to-day business of the Distance Learning MBA. Our focus has been on delivering the same quality, maintaining the same listening ear to learning issues you might have and planning for future intakes (by the way, May and June will see new intakes in the UK, Trinidad and Malta). For me, this is a very good sign that the thing we treasure most, the good Henley name and ambience, is what this deal is all about. For sure, there will be plenty of change and plenty of new opportunities post-merger, but I am confident that the return on your investment, whether emotional or material, will remain intact.

As we head into the more pragmatic portion of the change, I will endeavour to keep you posted.

July Family Day

Every year the College organises an open day for programme members and their families. This year it will be held on July 5th. To find out what goes on, and how last year's went, see this link http://www.henleymc.ac.uk/henleymc03.nsf/pages/alumni_membersday2007

I hope that some of you studying outside the UK will also get the chance to come along and soak up (in a non-rainy way) some of the Henley atmosphere.


In May's newsletter I will be reporting on the Graduation ceremony (the first at which it is my role to read out all the graduating names!), the course reps meeting, and I'll be giving you some information from the Board of Examiners on average grades achieved for the various MBA assignments and exams - showing you that you almost certainly are doing better than you think!

May is going to be hectic round here, but I'd still like to be posting several things during the month. Also, don't forget that the Henley group on LinkedIn is still growing!

Chris Dalton
Director of Studies

A visit to the Apartheid Museum

Whilst in South Africa, I managed to take some time away from Henley work to visit the much-publicised Apartheid Museum. I was urged to do so by a number of locals, but I'm not sure how many of them had actually been there themselves. Such is the way - as a Londoner, I would frequently encourage visitors to go and see an attraction I had never witnessed myself.

So, a taxi drive across the city, through the downtown area, past the immense plateaus formed by the waste from the gold mines that Johannesburg, in every sense, is built on, and arrival at the museum at the edge of the Soweto township. Right next to the museum is a large Casino, which is next to a small amusement park, built loosely around the theme of gold mining. The Gold Reef park has maintained the mine shafts, which allow visitors to descend to view a rough approximation of a gold mine.

The concrete architecture of the Apartheid museum reminded me a little of Yad Vashem, the holocaust memorial in Jerusalem. On the day I visited, the museum was experiencing some technical problems (perhaps in connection with the frequent scheduled power outtages that are plaguing the country at present) and not all the exhibits were working. It was still open, but not charging admission.

I spent nearly two hours there, before being ushered out early by very polite security guards. They apparently wanted to fix the technical issues, which had perhaps been made worse by the gigantic thunderstorm that had hit whilst I was inside.

There were several things that remain with me about the museum and its contents:

1. The way in which the absurd logic of apartheid reached down to such mundane levels of what the rest of us take for granted as daily life. Over time, the system's internal logic meant that everything had to labelled, often with (if it weren't for the brutality with which it was imposed and maintained) farcical results. It comes across as a whole society built on fear, an emotion which can never produce anything positive.

2. For the first time in my life, I was viewing authentic exhibits, evidence of oppression, written in my own native language. Growing up in the UK, I find it easy to equate my language with being on the moral high ground. Of course, this is a fallacy. Not only were the British heavily involved in the history of southern Africa, and of the events which produced the leaders who framed the apartheid law, there are perhaps dozens of other instances in my country's history where the language of the oppressor has been my own.

3. It was fascinating to learn about apartheid and draw inspiration directly from the experiences of those who lived in it, fought against it and sometimes died because of it. One of those is Stephen Biko, and there was a very good temporary exhibition about him and his short life.

e-Newsletter for March

Dear All,

It's always a pleasure to write these newsletters. This month's has added spice as I am writing on location in Johannesburg, South Africa. I'm here to fly the flag at a World MBA Tour event, sit in on part of a Stage 2 starter workshop, work one-on-one with programme members who are now at dissertation stage and then kick things off next week for the Stage One Starter with the next intake, which is looking like it's going to be a big baby, weighing in at over 80 new people.

It's sometimes tempting - when secure at Henley - to entertain the illusion that the world revolves around the College, occasionally paying a visit. While many of you will at some point spend some time come and enjoy the studious peace and quiet of Henley-on-Thames, the truth is actually you live your lives, manage your careers and do much of your reflecting and learning elsewhere.

So connecting to the outside world is a vital part of generating the energy back in the UK. Over the last 12 to 18 months we have been trying to incorporate more and more ways to link you with each other and with us. The Internet is no substitute for the subtlety and nuance of personal contact, yet it does open the (virtual) door to touch others with our thinking and inspiration in our use of language via the written word. I am amazed by the diversity of people on the MBA and, in equal measure, encouraged by the conformity of impact that your programme has. As we further develop our ability to provide a dynamic electronic learning environment, I hope that we can find a way to share your stories and facilitate your networking even more.

Home Straight Community news

Mike and Richard are busy preparing the next Home Straight Community event, which will be on Sunday May 18th. They will be distributing the agenda to all those who are eligible to attend.

I know that it is quite common at this late stage of your MBA that you are looking around for a change in career. One great way of exploring this is to undertake a dissertation conducting research in a new industry or around a new organisation. If anyone out there has a topic, project or suitable theme for another member to do in their MBA, then let me know and I will advertise it here. For example...

Opportunity to carry out research for your dissertation with Henley’s KM Forum

I have received the following from Christine Van Winkelen.
"Members of the Henley Knowledge Management Forum are large multi-national organisations and UK public sector bodies: there are currently 45 member organisations. Each year working groups of members undertake a number of collaborative research projects. Members choose the topics and shape the direction of the research, which broadly relates to aspects of knowledge management.

If you are looking for a dissertation topic and need access to research data, then you may be interested in working with the KM Forum on one of this year’s projects. You will need to be able to work to the timescale required by the Forum (working very actively between April and November 2008) and attend 5 half-day meetings with the working group at Henley. You should also have an interest in knowledge management and intend to complete your dissertation on this timescale. Contact the Forum Director to find out more, including how to apply. The deadline for applications to be received is the 14th April."

Another one, received a tad too late to make it into February's e-newsletter, was this from Claire Williams:

"I know an ex-colleague who is in the process of starting up his own business of an internet booking service. He needs some help with researching the market and analysing price strategies, etc. I thought it would be a good dissertation project. I'm sponsored by the Bank and so am in discussions about their requirements for my dissertation, but do you know of anyone who might be interested? Thanks. Claire"

If you'd like to be put in touch with Claire, let me know.

Next Course Reps Council

For those of you who are part of Henley-based intakes, just a reminder that the next meeting of Course Representatives will be at the College on Friday May 9th. If you would like to raise any issues for inclusion on the agenda, you need to do that with your course rep before April 18th. The course reps will be looking for feedback from you about things which affect the wider group; if you have an issue personal to yourself, then please contact your Personal Tutor or course administrator in the first instance. There will also be a full briefing of the status of the merger with Reading given at this meeting.

Members Day and Alumni Ball

This one is applicable to everyone studying with Henley. A reminder from Susan Parr that we are now taking bookings for Members Day on July 5th. Members day is a family-oriented 'open house' at the College and a fantastic opportunity to see Greenlands if you are normally based outside the UK, and a chance to relax rather than study on the grounds with classmates and friends if you are a regular visitor.

The College is also organising an Alumni Ball, on Saturday October 11th. A black-tie event, it is promising to be a high-powered affair and the College hopes to be able to raise money for the Henley Alumni Scholarship Fund. Contact Irina Woodford for further details and booking information.

This month I am attempting to email this out to all DL MBA members (around four thousand of you!), so it's possible you are receiving this for the first time. Hope you don't mind.

All the best

My Easter Rising

This Easter I was able to spend some time away from it all in Ireland. Some time in Dublin, and then two wonderfully relaxing and unwinding days in Galway. As you can see, I was luckier than most people in the British Isles with the weather...

The pictures don't capture the keen North wind, nor the heady smell of peat smoke and salt air.

Unaccustomed as I am...

Last Friday we held a special supper to mark Intake 30's final scheduled workshop on their Henley MBA programme. These events are invariably held in a private dining room, away from the main restaurant, and the intimate atmosphere leads to some really good conversations, where the personality of the group loosens its tie, relaxes a little and compares notes on what's what.

We usually invite either the Principal or a member of the Senior Management Team along to speak during coffee, and they usually are only too happy to accept. Hearing about the history of Henley, combined with the 'horse's mouth' version of our future strategy is always appreciated and is part of the glue that will stick our alumni to Henley. However, this time and for a host of unforeseen and unforeseeable circumstances, foreign travel, and prior engagements, all my usual speakers were unable to make it.

Which left...me!

But then I thought, well, you're the Director of Studies, you should be able to step up to the plate and deliver at least part of the Gospel according to Henley. I don't find it difficult standing up in front of a group, but when I do so, it's nearly always as a trainer or facilitator of learning. As a speaker, in that setting, the dynamic was quite different and I have a new-found respect for those who can do it well. I know that I can learn how to do it well, too, I merely hope that this intake will forgive me practicing on them.

I've noted that in order to gain the space to improvise and hold your audience, you actually need to be quite formulaic in your preparation. There really is, for example, a rule of three, and you really can elicit a reaction by keen observation of several other conventions.

A life in service

One of my favourite films is the Robert Altman classic, Gosford Park, which is a study of the complexity of life in an English Stately Home over one weekend in the inter-war period. On one level it is a murder mystery, a whodunit, but what makes it repeatedly watchable is the recreation of a more or less self-contained community, full of strong personalities and odd behaviours, but a community nonetheless.

This week, our Principal addressed the staff and faculty of the College in the largest of our meeting rooms, a tiered auditorium we call National Grid. The topic was an up-date on the proposed merger with Reading, but I won't bore you with details of that (or satisfy your curiosity with juicy tidbits).

What was worth remarking was seeing the whole College in one place. Every seat was filled, and the great and good from Faculty sat alongside the chefs and maids from our excellent hotel and restaurant. Like many service organisations, I suppose we struggle collectively knowing whether what we do is a science or an art. We often try to see it as one and then realise that it is perhaps other, and suffer as a result. I think it remains ever a blend between the two.

The merger with Reading Business School has a hard to argue case for it. Henley's strategic goal to be a permanent member of the "World's Best Business Schools" club is one I share. However, I think we will all miss, and might need to mourn in a brief, understated and typically British way, the end of our splendid, isolated and idiosyncratic independence.

There are plenty of great lines in Gosford Park, but to my mind the one that reflects the 'beow stairs' work that programme members (I hope) find when they visit Henley is this:

Lady Sylvia McCordle: Mrs Wilson, absolute crisis. I've just found out that Mr Weissman won't eat meat. I don't know what to do and I can't ask Mrs Croft. I simply don't dare.
Mrs. Wilson: Everything's under control your ladyship. Mr Weissman's valet informed us as soon as he after he arrived so we've prepared a special version of the soup, he can eat the fish and the hors d'oeuvres, there'll be a welsh rarebit for the game course, I'm not sure what we're going to do about the entree but we'll think of something.
Lady Sylvia McCordle: Thank you Mrs Wilson. Ten steps ahead as always.

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

Back to Skool

I find myself in alien territory of academia. Yesterday I came up to Lancaster University, a modern, self-contained education provider, sandwiched between the main north-south rail line and the M6, but with lovely views on to green hills beyond. There are all sorts of students here - quite different to the ambience of Henley.

This is my first trip to this campus as a PhD student, and I had to go through the same rites of passage of registration, library and ISS logins that everyone does. I also had a meeting with my supervisors, John Burgoyne and Ian Clark. We were joined by a third academic, Ian Densten, so my barely-thought-through ideas were given a real work-out in their mental gym. My brain still aches this morning! But it was also tremendously helpful and although I cannot see with 20/20 vision where I am going, I can see better now where I'm not.

Today I have been attending a get-together of other part-time PhD students in the department. It's very interesting hearing different people's stories and perspectives. Some of the stories are horror stories, but they are told with some relish by those who have them now in their past. How I look forward to telling my own, in hindsight.

The delicate chemistry of the crowd

From the slow start, last week picked up in both pace and mood. By Friday, and the arrival of the new Henley-Based MBA intake, things were at full pelt.

It's very interesting how every new cohort, despite bearing so many similarities to one another (age, geography, industry and workshop agenda tend not to vary across the year), has developed its own distinct personality by lunchtime on the first day. There must be an almost chemical reaction, unseen by those it involves, that produces a slightly different formula each time.

The temptation would be to say something such as 'this intake reminds me of...' but that would preclude the almost certain possibility that this intake is of its own making, forming its own story, and quite like ones we've seen before. Let's see where it goes from here.

Monday bites back

I knew it was going to be one of those days when on a freezing cold start to the day on the M40 this morning I was cut off by a white van which completely failed to see me. Lucky there was nothing by my side as I swerved left to avoid the van.

My composure recaptured, I nevertheless decided to park on the 'client' side of the road at Henley (and therefore just outside my own office), with the flimsy internal excuse that I was already late. After a quick word with the Director of Studies for the Full-time MBA I made it to work and went straight to set up a team build session for the Advanced Management Programme, which is now in its third and final week. The team-build went well, and I really enjoy working with the spontaneity of an experiential learning exercise, but from then until I left at 6.30 that evening, the day was a fusillade of issues...

Some days are quiet games of gentle lawn tennis, others are like being on the other side of the net as the training machine blasts out ball after ball at top speed. I now have a 'to do' list to organise my 'to do' list. There were issues to juggle all day around budgets, timetables, workshops, special cases in admission, re-registration and plagiarism, as well as several 'corridor' meetings with colleagues from all over the college.

I didn't make it in to speak with intake 35 during their Finance workshop, but will start with them tomorrow morning at their Personal Development session. Being away in Hungary, I missed being able to speak to Intake 32, which I very much regret as theirs was a Part Starter workshop and marked the half-way point in their MBA.

One piece of heartening news is that we are now certain to be over target in recruitment for the next Henley intake, which start at the College this week on Friday.

Einstein's theory of the relativity of time, revisited

Since I will have my first face-to-face meeting with my supervisors before the end of February, I had a couple of days working from home this week, ostensibly to make some progress with ideas for my PhD.

I rediscovered the strange phenomenon that making a cup of tea, an activity that might occupy thirty seconds at work on a busy day, can take a full 35 minutes at home when all that waits to distract you is a pile of academic articles about complexity theory, adult learning theory and critical realism.

Eastern promise Central to Europe

Last week I had the unexpected but none the less pleasurable chance to spend a week in Budapest with the full-time MBA group, who were undertaking the first of their three foreign study trips during their one-year programme.

Having lived there for so long, and having acquired the language, I was in the strange position of knowing some of the background history (and background chat). We visited four companies while there, and during the final presentations it was fascinating to see impressions drawn through fresh pairs of eyes. This was also a very friendly, lively and impeccably behaved group, which helped.

Much of what I knew from my time living and working there remains. The sweep of the river as it runs through one of the great city views of Europe is tremendous, and there are plenty of signs that on many levels Budapest is thriving.

Yet for all that Budapest has now gained the trappings of a European Union capital city, there is something I miss of the dilapidated and mysterious city I encountered in 1987, stepping off the train at the Eastern Railway station. I was a refugee from the dwindling anarchic freedom of Margaret Thatcher's England, and Budapest was a totally foreign experience. Materially things were simple because there was no outlet for them to be ostentatious. Manners were strictly observed and part of another era. But austere necessity seemed to have also forced all the creativity and self expression underground, and I soon discovered that there were many networks of like-minded (and some broad-minded) people. The system was absolute, but everyone absolutely knew how to get around it. As a visitor, you were taken from unlikely place to unlikely place in the city. Everything was available, but you had to know where, and who.

Remnants of that mindset were sometimes hinted at during the study tour, though the back-drop now seems completely inappropriate. Where the ability to circumvent the rules, the determination to look after number one, and the insulation of "being Hungarian" were once necessary survival mechanisms, the same attributes leave the country in danger of being passed by. Reforms don't work, the political elite excel in a mix of corruption and bigotry, and there is a cultural inwardness that refuses to reach out to neighbour and takes little or no interest outside the world of the magyar.

The sad thing is that they would have so much going for them. They are proud, independent and very clever. But like many formerly powerful European nations, you are left with the feeling that Hungary (even after all these years since their starring role in the downfall of the Berlin Wall) hasn't quite got the point.

e-Newsletter for January

Dear all,

It's one of those very stormy English winter days here at Henley, with wind-driven rain, trees bending at their tops and the surface of the Thames whipped into (by staid British standards) a frenzied procession downstream toward London. And yet the daffodils are already flowering on the lawns and hinting at Spring, so it appears to me a bit of a mixed message.

The Merger

The only item worth starting with this month is the piece of news you all will already know, namely the proposed merger with Reading Business School. Since first announced, and where concern has been raised by programme members, it appears the be centred on the retention of the word Henley with the MBA (it remains in place) and on the location of the MBA in the College (we stay in place). The things that make Henley special, and perhaps they are the ones that influenced you most, are exactly the elements of the deal that make sense for Reading. The size, resources and research reputation of Reading complement our strengths and provide a platform to compete with other top 10 world business schools.

There's more information about the merger now posted on your eLearning area, and there is also an email where you can address comments and questions - merger@henleymc.ac.uk. Don't be shy.

The Ranking

Another interesting development this month is the first ever ranking of Distance Learning MBA programmes, which has been created by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). Henley is placed at number 6 in the world. This places us above everyone else in the UK except Warwick (who are now in my sights!).

The addition of this ranking is both long overdue and welcome. Despite the limitations one must always keep in mind with any ranking, it does gives us another metric to help define the Henley MBA and measure our progress and perceived brand value. One of those limitations is the difficulty in defining what is and what isn't a distance learning degree. Another is discerning the extent to which a programme is local or global. The Henley DL MBA is global, and one or two of the other schools listed cannot claim this. The Henley DL MBA is also a distinct and separate alternative to the part-time Executive MBA, which again cannot be said of some of the other programmes ranked by EIU.

Nevertheless, it is worth pointing out that Henley is one of only two schools listed in the top ten of both Economist MBA rankings. Thank you to anyone who contributed their time in participating in the survey last year and we hope that many more of you will feel energised to do so in 2008.

Home Straight Community News

Those members in Intake HB28 who have reached the Dissertation due date in the schedule but have yet to submit their final masterpiece have now all been invited to join the Home Straight. This will attract the attentions of two experienced Henley tutors to monitor your progress and encourage you, as well as a community of around 300 others in the same position. There is a blog, to which you will need an invitation from me. The blog has been fairly quiet in the last month, so I'd like to remind anyone who has a useful insight or tip to share it with the others online.

Dissertation Request

Speaking of HB28, one of their number, Dahjit Ghoman, has approached me to advertise for volunteers to participate in research for his Dissertation. The topic is "Low cost sourcing."

More Research

One of the best ways to learn more about doing your own research on the MBA is to participate in someone else's. Here is another opportunity, brought to my notice by Roger Palmer on the Henley Faculty. He writes:

"We would like to ask you to support a research project by completing an online questionnaire. The research, which is being conducted by a Ph.D. student, deals with the question of how customers evaluate and use information sources. The hypotheses will be tested on the MBA market. This is a very interesting market with many customers (you), suppliers (business schools) and third-party information sources (such as rankings, accreditations, etc.).
Henley has agreed to support the project as it contributes to state-of-the-art research and also helps us to enhance our existing knowledge of the MBA market and hence the efficiency of our marketing efforts.

Please start the survey by clicking on the following link:
[removed]

The site will be available until February 10, 2008.

Last but not least, you have the chance to win one of two 50 EUR or one of fifteen 25 EUR gift certificates from Amazon."

Results from the Board of Examiners in January

These should now be available to you online on the e:portal. I sincerely hope that you have good news and are feeling either very pleased with yourself if you have now finished, or spurred on if you are part-way through. It is sometimes frustrating to have what appears to be a considerable lag between the exam and the results, or confirmation of award. I can recall wondering what on earth Henley was up to when I was a DL programme member myself. However, having seen the process from the other side of the fence, I now see the many steps taken to ensure equity and accuracy in marking, assured by a very thorough system of external examiners. This month's Board of Examiners meeting ran for a gruelling three hours, and the level of detail and concern over individual cases was very noticeable. We know that the MBA process means a lot to you.
Apologies for the break in communication on the Henley website and e:assignment portal at the start of the month. It was very frustrating, but the fault was outside the College and actually affected many other institutions for a number of days as well. It was doubly frustrating that we couldn't let you know what the problem was!

New Associate in Malta

I'm pleased to announce that we have recently signed a contract with Allied Consultants in Malta, who will be continuing the long relationship with the Henley MBA that has been the work of Reno Sammut for many years. Having just returned from a visit there, I can tell you that the statistic that one in every thousand worker in Malta has a Henley MBA is true - we met them everywhere!

Next month we will be running Stage One starter workshops here at Henley for the next Henley-based intake, HB38, and also for groups from Denmark, Sweden, Finland and (I'm told) Greenland.

Finally, many thanks to all those who were kind enough to write with congratulations on my new position. I can testify both that the role is a fantastic challenge and also that the honeymoon period is definitely over!

Henley distance learning MBA in the Economist ranking

For the first time, the well-known Economist Intelligence Unit has produced a ranking of distance learning MBAs. You can read the extended report here. Henley is placed at number 6, which means that we are the only European school in the top ten of both EIU MBA rankings. We are number two in the UK, behind Warwick. To be honest, I'd much rather we were number one!

DL is often hard to categorise and define, so although there are occasionally attempts to list programmes (usually ranked by reported numbers of registered students), until now no-one has successfully collated a coherent and transparent ranking. Though I welcome it, I'm not sure how successful this one is because they are not actually comparing like with like.

The first thing that struck me was that the EIU ranking extends only to 10 schools. This is somewhat baffling since there must be at least twice that number of recognised DL MBA programmes, or shades of DL, around the world. Did they not ask certain schools to participate? Did they ask but some schools declined? How did they identify their target list?

The second thing is the criteria used to define their formula for the final list, via the three sub-categories of "Programme Content", "Quality of Fellow Students" and "Distance Learning elements" (this last one might contain a number of different things). The Florida and IE programmes use distance learning aspects to deliver what is in fact a regular part-time MBA curriculum to a regular part-time MBA sized cohort. Henley, Warwick and OU deliver to a much more geographically spread and perhaps more experienced set of students. The consortium programme offered via Nantes (which includes Maastricht and EADE) is more interesting as a model.

If only some of the schools on the list are competing with each other, then the overall comparison seems less useful. Having looked, for example, at the web sites for Florida (ranked number 1) and Curtin (ranked number 4) they are both clearly solid schools, but ones that deliver to a localised market.

Nevertheless, there is value for the education provider to look closely at what goes on in other schools, and I'm sure there are interest points for all 10 schools on the list. Understanding the mechanics behind the ranking will probably be useful in knowing where to work on for next year. Though we did ok in the third category, I would like to report then that we our current and past students have a more favourable opinion of Henley's learning materials, sense of connection with the school and value for money.

However, we will no doubt still be in competition with the part-time MBA delivered using DL methodology, and with some schools where the cultural norm is to grade/evaluate at the top end of the scale (the US). In the UK, not only do we need to deliver an excellent service, you the programme member need to be happy to acknowledge it on the Likert scale in the questionnaire.