Management School News

The Management School is guided by consultation with an Advisory Board whose members are appointed for a period of three years.  We are now pleased to share with you an updated list of the Board’s members:

External members:

• Nick Baird, CEO, UKTI
• Jonathan Bye, CEO, Seabrook Crisps Ltd
• Duncan Cheatle, CEO, Prelude Group
• Andrea Davis, Managing Director, Industry Solutions, TDX Group
• Sue Douthwaite, Divisional Managing Director, Santander bank
• Jamie Ford, CEO, Plusnet
• Professor Anthony Fretwell-Downing, Chairman F. Fretwell-Downing Ltd & Director Fretwell-Downing Hospitality Ltd
• John Graham, Founder/CEO GO Outdoors
• Teresa Hitchcock, Partner DLA Piper
• Jos Lemmink, Dean, Maastricht Business School
• Neil MacDonald, Master Cutler
• John Mothersole, CEO, Sheffield City Council
• Ann Pickering, HR Director, O2
• Martin Roth, Director Victoria and Albert Museum
• Salem Samhoud, Founder of &samhoud
• Ian Shellard, Global Director Logistics and Supply Chain Management, Rolls-Royce
• Steve Smith, Director Group Sales and Operation Planning, Tata Steel
• Nigel Turner, Non-Executive Director, Jetscape Inc, Gyro-Jet Ltd , The Airline Group Ltd
• Andy Ward, Managing Partner of PwC Sheffield

Internal members:

• Professor Bradley Barnes, Associate Dean for Internationalisation
• Yvonne Beach, Director of Operations
• Professor John Cullen, Associate Dean for Knowledge Exchange
• Professor Pauline Dibben, Associate Dean for Research
• Professor Keith Glaister, Dean
• Professor Lenny Koh, Associate Dean for Alumni Relations
• Linda Lewis, Associate Dean for Learning and Teaching

You can read more about the Board at: http://www.shef.ac.uk/management/about/board

Business leaders and managers who completed the inaugural city-wide leadership programme celebrated their successes at a graduation event in November

The City Region Leadership Programme (CRLP) ceremony, held at Firth Hall, Firth Court, honoured more than 60 delegates from a range of organisations including the NHS, Sheffield City Council, Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council, South Yorkshire Police and South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service.

The programme, which was part of an initiative supported by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), was delivered jointly by business experts at the University of Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam University. It is the first time the universities have worked collaboratively on a programme in this way.

The scheme aimed at senior managers and potential future leaders throughout South Yorkshire builds the collaborative leadership skills needed to develop entrepreneurial initiative in the region, as well as delivering better outcomes with fewer resources, delivering innovative solutions, coordinating services around users’ needs, and tackling challenges currently facing businesses.

The organisations benefit from the application of the tools and techniques learnt on the programme, allowing them to save resources, solve problems, and deliver measurable impact through collaborative partnership.  In this way the leaders can make a difference to communities and help transform the region.

The postgraduate certificate, which began in September 2010, includes formal study workshops, a series of masterclasses, coaching and mentoring and interactive group- based sessions. A second group of managers have commenced the programme this year.

The event was attended by Professor Keith Glaister, Dean of the Management School at the University of Sheffield, Professor Adrian Hopgood, Pro Vice-Chancellor and Dean of Sheffield Business School at Sheffield Hallam University, as well as dignitaries including the Lord Mayor, the Chairman of the Sheffield City Region Local Enterprise Partnership Board and both the Chief and Deputy Chief Executives of Sheffield City Council.

Guest speaker James Newman said: “Creating leaders, especially in the public services, is going to be vital if those industries are going to transform themselves in the current world we live in where there’s less money, more pressure and more demand for better services.

“From my perspective creating collaboration is key, between public services, amongst themselves and across the region. Also between the public sector, the private sector, higher education and schools and colleges where a lot of the knowledge comes from.”

Professor Hopgood added: “This programme has been a fantastic example of collaboration between the two universities in Sheffield. It has delivered a practical yet rigorous programme for developing leadership talent in the City Region. I am sure that the next group of delegates will be just as successful and look forward to future collaborations of this kind.

Professor John Cullen, Associate Dean for Knowledge Exchange at the Management School, said: “This is our first graduation from the programme and it’s a really proud moment. The programme is something the region has needed. It is an innovative collaborative initiative which is creating future leaders for the region, who will champion the necessity for cross-organisational working in order to take the region forward.”

For more information on the Sheffield City Region Leadership Programme visit:

• http://www.business-advantage.org/available-courses/city-region-leadership-programme

Gareth Davis graduated with a degree in Geography and Economics from the University of Sheffield in 1972. He is currently Chairman of William Hill plc and Wolesley plc, and a non- executive director of DS Smith plc.

Gareth was formerly CEO of Imperial Tobacco Group PLC, where he spent 37 successful years developing it from a predominantly UK business into one of the world´s leading tobacco companies – including leading the successful demerger of the company from Hanson PLC, and its listing on the London Stock Exchange in October 1996.

A former resident of Earnshaw Hall whilst at Sheffield, Gareth was also a keen member of the football team and is a dedicated Bolton Wanderers supporter.

Expert Lecture from Gareth Davis 05 May 2011

During his expert lecture, University of Sheffield alumnus Gareth Davis, shared the qualities that, in his experience, are the makings of a good leader:

1. Work hard

To plagiarise the old Gary Player quote – ‘the harder I work the luckier I seem to get’ – in other words intelligence or intellect is not enough to be able to lead.

2. Know your industry well

Know your industry´s processes of manufacture and sales and try to be an expert on your competitors and other stakeholders in your business.

3. The unstoppable combination

Hard work, informed technical expertise and, above all, a character that enables you to get on with people is a rare but unstoppable combination for success.

4. Learn to be brave

When you have gained experience and knowledge learn to be brave and trust your instincts.

5. Be an optimist

Have a can-do approach to life – see the glass half full. It inspires confidence in others around you.

6. Embrace and value internationalisation in all its forms

By all means be a proud national but by embracing internationalisation your life, career and emotional intelligence will be immeasurably enriched.

7. Take a chance on people

Let them flourish and especially take a chance on youth – you will be let down only very rarely.

8. Walk the talk

A vision and a strategy have to be lived and breathed or you become a victim of rhetoric and are seen as vacuous.

9. Assemble talent around you (above or below)

Be demanding of that talent, treat them well and show them loyalty.

10. Respect the dignity of work at all levels

Never forget the little guy or take them for granted – they need respect as well as reward.

11. Be visible, approachable, accessible and prepared to listen and learn

And at all costs avoid the `not invented here´ syndrome – one of the biggest drags on a business and a massive turn-off to an aspiring management team.

And last but by no means least:
12. Have some fun!

Enjoy your colleagues, celebrate their achievements and try to enrich their lives.

Across the 27 Member States of the European Union (EU-27) as well as EFTA countries, national governments have invested a great deal of effort in developing and testing various policy approaches and measures to tackle undeclared work Until now, however, the emphasis given to cross-national cooperation has been rather less than one might have expected.

Reflecting this, the role of international cooperation in the prevention and fight against undeclared work has gained increased priority as a policy matter in the EU and in Member States’ agendas. At present, most cooperation occurs on a piecemeal country-by-country basis. More concerted coordinated action between labour inspectorates, and other relevant monitoring and enforcement bodies to prevent and fight undeclared work, has been the exception rather than the rule.

In consequence, it is now widely recognised that there is a need to explore the feasibility of establishing a European platform to coordinate actions between labour inspectorates, and other relevant monitoring and enforcement bodies. The precise configuration of this platform for coordinated European action, however, will need to be fully debated and an evidence-base is required to enable that discussion and debate to take place in the clearest of terms.

Professor Colin Williams of the Management School has been selected by the European Commission to provide the evidence-base and a series of policy options so as to enable an informed discussion and debate.

A feasibility study will be conducted during 2010 on establishing a European platform for cooperation between labour inspectorates, and other relevant monitoring and enforcement bodies, to prevent and fight undeclared work, funded by the European Commission [No. VT/2009/049]. This will learn from the lessons of not only previous attempts to seek cooperation in other spheres of activity at a European level and/or cross-nationally but also gauge evidence and views from across the full range of interested parties across governments and social partners in EU member states and beyond.

This research will be conducted in collaboration with Dr Piet Renooy of Regioplan Policy Research in the Netherlands, Ruslan Stefanov of the Center for the Study of Democracy (CSD) in Bulgaria, Professor Charles Woolfson of Linköping University in Sweden and Roeland Hartman, international labour law expert at Holland Van Gijzen Attorneys.

The current project builds upon Professor Williams’ involvement in earlier European-wide research including the design of a 27-nation survey of undeclared work for the European Commission implemented by Eurobarometer in 2007, and the recent production for the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions of a good practice ‘knowledge bank’ evaluating the effectiveness and transferability of over 100 policy measures used in 27 EU member states.

Geoff Nichols has recently received a grant from the Knowledge Transfer Rapid Response fund to conduct research with Manchester Event Volunteers (MEV) to explore ways of developing volunteering opportunities for the future.  Established after the 2002 Commonwealth Games, MEV is supported by Manchester City Council and was set up to develop a range of volunteering opportunities and to develop the human legacy of the Games.  MEV acts as a broker, feeding events into the NW of England and contributing an essential sector of the tourism labour force.

The research will explore MEV’s success in developing volunteer programmes and the expectations of volunteers and event managers  to inform public policy for the 2012 Olympics and beyond and how this might be used to create a legacy of volunteering.

Increasing volunteering has economic benefits for local tourism, creates opportunities for sports participation and delivers a great deal of personal satisfaction to participants.

The research will be conducted in collaboration with Rita Ralston at Manchester Metropolitan University.

The Sheffield Management Lecture 2008 was another successful event in this series of annual lectures. Speaker, John Seddon, educated and entertained the audience of nearly 450 people with an exposition of the problems associated with managing by targets.

Citing many examples of failures of management attempting to comply with ministerial target setting – the so called “Command and Control” approach – John instead proposed a model where “flows” are managed rather than costs.

His entertaining oratory style went down well with the assembled members of the region’s business community.

Keith Glaister, Dean of the University of Sheffield Management School said “I was delighted at the success of the Management School lecture. John Seddon gave a provocative presentation which stimulated wide-ranging discussion and debate. John was able to integrate management practice with an academic perspective based upon his experience with private and public sector bodies and organisations.”

More information, photgraphs and an audio download.